The DVR numbers for the March 8 head-to-head between Raw and Impact have come in. Raw had 188,000 homes watching Raw on Tivo, which was only slightly different from 189,000 on March 1. That increases the final Raw rating from 3.38 to 3.57. None of the regular Raw audience watched Impact live and recorded Raw. Impact had 68,000 homes watch on DVR. That is a 7% increase, growing the rating from 0.98 to 1.05. On Thursdays, however, Impact got an average 15% increase through DVR viewership.
Impact on March 29, with a 0.62 rating, is listed as having 877,000 viewers, although Spike TV research only has it at 813,000. The show has fallen under 0.6 twice before back in the Saturday night 11pm timeslot, once on November 19, 2005, head-to-head with a UFC PPV, once on April 1, 2006, head-to-head with Bret Hart’s WWE Hall of Fame induction speech. It did a 0.59 on February 15, 2007, on Thursday night when head-to-head with a pre-empted Raw. Although this show went against the post-WrestleMania Raw, with Shawn Michaels’ farewell address, the Raw from two weeks earlier with Steve Austin and the Bret/Vince contract signing did a higher number. That show did a 3.7 while Impact managed a 0.84, so there has been a 26% audience decrease in two weeks for Impact. The past two post-WrestleMania Raws both managed a 3.92 rating, with last year’s episode going head-to-head with NCAA basketball, yet this year’s did a 3.67. The Michaels’ farewell peaked at a 4.1 and gained 816,000 viewers. For comparison, the Ric Flair farewell address peaked at 4.7 and gained 1,187,000 viewers.
The USA Network is now in 99.44 million homes, while Spike is in 99.1 million. SyFy reaches 97.28 million homes and WGN America just 72.47 million. MyNetwork is thought to be in the 109 million range.
Credit: Wrestling Observer
