First Impact rating update of 2020 shows bump from Slammiversary, how it compares to NXT and AEW in viewership and key demos, pandemic impact

By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Motor City Machine Gunns celebrating Impact Tag Team Title victory (July 21 episode)

SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

Impact Wrestling on AXS TV on Tuesday this week drew 163,000 viewers, up from 156,000 the week before and 135,000 the week before that. The average since March 24 has been 145,000. So it appears the buzz generated from the Slammiversary PPV on Saturday night with the arrival of Heath Slater, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson and the returns of EC3, The Motor City Machine Gunns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley), and Eric Young may have helped add some viewers. Impact drew more viewers on May 12, and nine of the first ten weeks of the year it drew more than 163,000. The empty-arena setting has correlated to drops in viewership in the single digit percentages (5-10 percent, roughly) compared to projections based on seasonal ebb and flow in viewership annually.

Impact has averaged 147,000 viewers since April. It averaged 174,000 in January, February, and March. That’s a drop of 15 percent. Impact, like most wrestling shows, would have likely experienced a single-digit percentage drop in viewership without the pandemic. What’s not known is whether the absence of other live sports on cable had sent led to some viewers actually watching pro wrestling who wouldn’t have otherwise. That will begin to be tested in coming days as live sports returns to cable.

Impact is, by a wide margin, the most viewed show on AXS TV.

In the key 18-49 demo, Impact drew a 0.05 rating for the first time since Feb. 25, tying its high demo rating for the year. NXT, by comparison, drew a 0.17 rating in the demo, more than triple Impact’s rating in that demo. AEW drew a 0.32 in that demo, more than six times Impact’s rating in that demo.

The no. 50 ranked show on cable on Tuesday drew a 0.13 rating. Impact was right around the 103rd most watched cable show on Tuesday night in that demo, tied with “Road Kill” on Motor Trend among a few other shows with the same demo rating.

Extensive highlights from this weeks Impact are available at their website HERE.


RECOMMENDED: 7/21 IMPACT WRESTLING TV REPORT: EC3, Heath Slater, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, and Eric Young all appear, Machine Gunns (Sabin & Shelly) challenge The North in main event

5 Comments on First Impact rating update of 2020 shows bump from Slammiversary, how it compares to NXT and AEW in viewership and key demos, pandemic impact

  1. Who cares about TV ratings anymore? Do you think it’s still 1997 or something? Hundreds of thousands of people are ‘cutting the cord,’ year after year. There are, literally, dozens of other ways to get content nowadays. Wrestling websites reliance on wrestling T.V. ratings as another ‘story’ to make an article out of is pathetic, dated, and shows a desperation for any kind of content they can cook up, no matter how irrelevant it is. Why don’t you tell us how many VHS tapes AEW sold last week while you’re at it? Get with the times.

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