Hulk Hogan’s impact on TNA Impact’s rating
Did all the media attention surrounding the announcement of Hulk Hogan’s business arrangement with TNA make a difference in the ratings for this past Thursday’s episode of TNA Impact?
Yes and no.
The rating for the show was a 1.3, which equals its best-ever rating (although it was not a company record for most viewers). During the first four weeks of October, Impact did between a 0.9 and 1.1.
Impact also had its best showing among males 18-49 and males 18-34 since April.
That’s the good news, especially since the show was going head to head with the World Series between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies. However, when the ratings are broken down, the final segment, which showed clips of the news conference in which Hogan’s signing was announced – and had been hyped the entire show – was part of the lowest-rated quarter of the episode, according to prowrestling.net.
The drop in the final quarter hour notwithstanding, I think Hogan’s presence on the show – whether he’s actually in the Impact Zone or not – will continue to translate into ratings above Impact's usual level.
Obviously, more eyeballs on the show is a good thing. The key to whether the partnership with Hogan ultimately helps the company grow, however, depends on the direction TNA goes in creatively now that they have more people watching.
If Impact becomes The Hulk Hogan Show at the expense of younger guys such as Matt Morgan and A.J. Styles, the Hogan deal will end up doing more harm than good. Hogan has the ability to give those guys a rub, but he also needs to know when it’s time to get out of their way and not try to overshadow them.
Comments
For some reason, the rating was reported as 1.3, but the ratings for the hours were 1.26 for the first hour and 1.21 for the second hour. That means the rating was actually 1.23 or 1.24. I'm not sure why it was rounded up to a 1.3 instead of a 1.2.
Posted by: chris | November 2, 2009 7:08 PM
Hey, i started to check out TNA for the first time, i really LOVED it....
Its seems like i am going to start to follow TNA from now on.... Instead of the sinking ship Wwe.
And one of the reasons is that Hulk Hogan is on.. (he is not my biggest favorite) but he made me more AWARE of TNA...
So my questions is, do you want to give a small brief whats been going on on TNA? I mean, this will make a lot of new people turn into TNA show and payperviews.. so maybe you could do a quick historytalk or a breifing of the actual situation on TNA, i saw, there were some groups that was having storylines, and i saw even some new belts, i never seen before, Legends Belt? Whats the different belts? And which groups are dominating?
And.. the other thing is that, you mentioned and i have also thought about that the belts are turning and changing the entire time, from one person to another.. so conquering the belt, doesnt have the same POWER, as HOLDING the belt for a specific time, so my question is... Who have had the belt the longest time? Is there a list of like the 20 wrestlers, that have had the belt the LONGEST TIME; then taking the belt most times?
Cheers
Stevo from Sweden
Posted by: Anonymous | November 3, 2009 6:36 AM
Kevin I am really interested in your take on Hogan signing with TNA.
I have heard rumblings both on this site and others about guys like Taker, Michaels, HHH, Sting, and so on not being able to let go or management of the WWE and TNA seemingly apprehensive about "younger" talent.
Which leads to an odd statement. If AJ Styles has been in TNA for 7 years, that really doesn't make him "young" or "green" talent anymore. It's almost as if creative and management forget that fans have a sense of how time passes....For both older and younger wrestlers.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Prime Time Bobby Lee | November 3, 2009 8:30 AM
I, for one, turned into Impact just to see Hogan and was a little disappointed that it was only a video clip of the conference. I read just now that he won't be on this weeks show, so I'll skip until next week.
I also read an interesting article about a live tna show that only drew 850 paid tickets, which really shows you that this organization has a long, long way to go before thinking its a threat of wwe's.
Kevin, do you think it would benefit or make any difference if TNA was to convert to the standard 4X4 wrestling ring?
RESPONE FROM KE: I like the six-sided ring. TNA should do anything that makes it different from the competition.
Posted by: ndugu | November 3, 2009 1:16 PM
I still think that the best way for TNA to utilize Hogan is as a guest star. Just have him show up once in a while. He doesn't need to be there week after week.
Posted by: Jack Windham | November 3, 2009 1:36 PM
I disagree Kev, the six sided ring makes it look too gimmicky. Some times traditional is the best way to go.
Posted by: mrejr8234 | November 3, 2009 5:12 PM
Do you honestly think that Hogan has ever done anything that's not going to benefit himself, first and foremost?
Posted by: MM | November 6, 2009 5:16 PM
I'm no Hogan fan but it would be cool watching TNA than WWE all the time. Too bad I live in New Zealand and the only wrestling on tv we get is WWE and local wrestling. I could alwys watch TNA online but its not the same as watching it on TV and PPV.
Posted by: JBLfan | November 6, 2009 5:40 PM