By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

TNA Impact Wrestling on Thursday, March 8 officially scored a 1.03 rating off a first hour 1.06 rating and second hour 1.00 rating. The second hour was the lowest-rated of the year outside of the previous week's poorly-rated episode.

Impact peaked at the beginning of each hour with a 1.10 rating. Impact followed its regularly-occurring pattern of peaking at the top of each hour, declining throughout the hour, and reaching a low point at the end of each hour.

Because the overall rating was well-below standard levels, each quarter-hour of the show was below the corresponding 2011 average. The range was 6-to-21 percent. The largest discrepancy was in the main event segment in the eighth quarter-hour, which was 21 percent below the Q8-2011 average.

First Hour Break Down

Q1: Impact opened with a peak rating of a 1.10 for an opening segment revolving around Garett Bischoff and the Bischoff Family Feud, plus one commercial break. (down 6.6% vs. 2011-Q1 average)

Q2: Impact held steady with a 1.09 rating for the "Knockouts" tag match of ODB & Eric Young winning the KO Tag Titles from Gail Kim & Madison Rayne. There was also one commercial. (down 5.7% vs. 2011-Q2 average)

Q3: Impact declined slightly to a 1.06 rating for the first "Mr. Parks" Abyss video, Bully Ray backstage, and Austin Aries vs. Zema Ion in the ring, plus one-and-a-half commercials. (down 9.1% vs. 2011-Q3 average)

Q4: Impact hit the first low point of the show with a 0.98 rating for various talking segments involving Robert Roode and Bully Ray. Plus, one-and-a-half commercials. (down 12.9% vs. 2011-Q4 average)

Second Hour Break Down

Q5: Impact re-peaked with a 1.10 rating for a heel vs. heel match of Bobby Roode vs. Bully Ray at the top of the hour. This was followed by a Garett Bischoff segment, one commercial, and another Mr. Parks video. (down 10.7% vs. 2011-Q5 average)

Q6: Impact dropped one-tenth of a rating to a 1.00 rating. The segment included a brief tag match between Morgan & Crimson and the Robbies, one commercial, a video package, and the start of an A.J. Styles in-ring promo. (down 13.8% vs. 2011-Q6 average)

Q7: Impact dipped slightly to a 0.97 rating for a segment that included the end of Styles's promo and Mr. Anderson's TV return, more Garett videos, one commercial, and ring introductions for the TV main event. (down 14.9% vs. 2011-Q7 average)

Q8: Impact dipped slightly again to a show-low 0.93 rating for the main event tag featuring Kurt Angle & Gunner vs. Jeff Hardy & Garett Bischoff, who had been the focus of the show. It was slightly better than last week's 0.90 rating in Q8 to avoid being the lowest-rated Q8 rating of the past 15 months. (down 21.0% vs. 2011-Q8 average)

Caldwell's Analysis: The pattern was the same as past weeks when the ratings have been poor - Impact starts off average, dips, has a small spike at the top of the second hour, and steadily declines all the way through the rest of the show. Featuring Garett Bischoff so prominently in this episode was a poor decision, but there have been other episodes with similar results the past few months.

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