SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last night’s episode of Impact Wrestling on Pop TV, featuring week one of the tapings from India, drew 318,000 viewers among those watching live and later that same night on DVR.
The good news for Impact is it was the highest viewership since Apr. 20 and the second highest since the 2017 peak of 344,000 on Mar. 16. It was well above the 287,000 it drew last week and well above the 286,500 May average. The bad news is it still fell below last year’s viewership on the same week of 326,000.
Impact’s Viewership Averages in 2017:
May: 286,500
April: 296,500
March: 306,200
February: 287,750
January: 296,000
1ST 5 MONTHS 2017 AVERAGE: 294,590
Prior to the “regime change” and the replays and off-beat episodes in November and December, Impact had more loyal weekly viewers:
December 2016: 282,400
November 2016: 294,750
October 2016: 326,000
September 2016: 359,000
August 2016: 240,000
LAST FIVE MONTHS 2016 AVERAGE: 320,470
Keller’s Analysis: So Impact’s new regime with a shake-up in terms of the wrestlers being featured, with significant additions and subtractions, has yet to recover from the disarray late last year. The loss of the Broken Matt Hardy universe could play into the decline, but it’s difficult to tell how significantly as the last Broken Universe special didn’t do great numbers. They’re down an average of 25,000 viewers per week comparing the first five months of this year to the last five months of last year. Percentage-wise, that’s significant. This week’s rating, though, is essentially tied with the last five months of 2016.
Over analysis of ratings. The one true reason is that it’s on POP TV. Nothing more, nothing less.
For this week, a nice rise in numbers with being in India the main theme.
Limited with Pop. Unless they get to a new network, they will continue to look minor. Anthem needs to reinvest.