TNA Impact Wrestling made their debut last night on their new network, PopTV. From official viewing figures released today by ShowBuzzDaily, the show averaged 255,000 viewers over the 2-hour period. A cable rating of 0.8.
While these numbers at first glance might look impressive in comparison to their final show on Destination America (which drew 155,000), their final show [on Destination America] in the same time-slot drew 269,000 viewers.
A viewership decrease in the same time-slot by 5.5%.
On this exact date last year (Jan 7, 2015), the show debuted on Destination America with 359,000 viewers. 29% more than last night’s figure.
Destination America is available in 57,000,000 homes (50% coverage) and PopTV is available in 75,000,000 homes (67% coverage).
In layman’s terms, this means TNA’s debut on PopTV, a channel which has a 23% higher reach than Destination America, managed to draw less viewers in the same debut time-slot, at the same time of year, than a channel with 17% less reach.
And while initial reaction to the debut PopTV rating has been positive within the internet wrestling community, and indeed TNA themselves, when you put those numbers side by side and compare them fairly, it’s quite worrying for TNA.
Sources: TV By the Numbers, Nielsen Ratings, ShowbuzzDaily, Destination America, PopTV.