The Ratings War

The primary way that television executives assess whether or not their programming is successful is by the final ratings number and viewership estimates that the program receives after each airing. This is no different in the world of professional wrestling. Below you can find links to the history of the brief Monday night ratings war between IMPACT WRESTLING and WWE RAW and the equally brief Thursday night ratings war between IMPACT WRESTLING and WWE Superstars. In fact, you can even find links to the data showing a comparison between the ratings of WWE Monday Night RAW and WCW Monday NITRO from the 1990s! This page is updated frequently, so please be sure to check back each week for the latest information on the ratings and viewership estimates for IMPACT WRESTLING. And don’t forget to read the note at the bottom of the page regarding DVR viewership!

IMPACT Wrestling Arrives on Destination America (January 2015 – Present)
Starting in January 2015, IMPACT Wrestling moved its primary television show from Viacom’s Spike TV to the Discovery Channel’s Destination America. IMPACT Wrestling’s production agreement with Destination America includes not just its 2 hour flagship show, but a 2 hour encore of the show as well as weekend programming including the new Unlocked program and TNA’s Greatest Matches. IMPACT Wrestling enters 2015 with a variety of other changes including a new voice of TNA as Josh Matthews takes over from Mike Tenay. However, Tenay isn’t going too far away – he will host IMPACT Wrestling’s weekend program Unlocked which will include his unique perspective on backstage happenings in the company as well as additional content that is not aired during the IMPACT Wrestling broadcast. Matthews joins the returning Taz on commentary as IMPACT Wrestling also starts the year by moving from Wednesday to Friday night.

The biggest challenge that IMPACT WRESTLING will face on Destination America is coverage of American households. Not only did their prior agreement with Spike TV include coverage in Canada, but as of August 2013, Spike TV was available in 97,639,000 homes. As of the same month, Destination America was available in 59,616,000 homes. However, with more programming available to grab eyes on the weekends a West Coast show airing right after the original show airs, IMPACT Wrestling has a great opportunity to grow into the cable channel’s premier program.

January 7, 2015	0.46	Combined: 502,000 | Report East Coast: 359,000 | West Coast: 143,000
Show Notes:	The January 7th episode aired live from the Manhattan Center in New York City, NY. It was the last IMPACT Wrestling episode to air on Wednesday night and the first to air on Destination America.
January 16, 2015	0.28	Combined: 531,000 | Report East Coast: 387,000 | West Coast: 144,000
Show Notes:	The January 16th episode was the first IMPACT Wrestling to air on Friday night, the show’s new time slot on Destination America.
January 23, 2015	0.32	Combined: 603,000 | Report East Coast: 517,000 | West Coast: 86,000
January 30, 2015	0.28	Combined: 584,000 | Report East Coast: 431,000 | West Coast: 153,000
February 6, 2015	0.34	Combined: 691,000 | Report East Coast: 525,000 | West Coast: 166,000
February 13, 2015	0.29	Combined: 596,000 | Report East Coast: 454,000 | West Coast: 142,000
February 20, 2015	0.29	Combined: 577,000 | Report East Coast: 453,000 | West Coast: 124,000
February 27, 2015	0.24	Combined: 502,000 | Report East Coast: 366,000 | West Coast: 136,000
March 6, 2015	0.26	Combined: 583,000 | Report East Coast: 421,000 | West Coast: 162,000
March 13, 2015	0.23	Combined: 414,000 | Report East Coast: 338,000 | West Coast: 76,000
March 20, 2015	0.27	Combined: 546,000 | Report East Coast: 403,000 | West Coast: 143,000
March 27, 2015	0.29	Combined: 608,000 | Report East Coast: 444,000 | West Coast: 164,000
April 3, 2015	0.29	Combined: 596,000 | Report East Coast: 443,000 | West Coast: 153,000
April 10, 2015	0.27	Combined: 583,000 | Report East Coast: 408,000 | West Coast: 175,000
April 17, 2015	0.27	Combined: 572,000 | Report East Coast: 401,000 | West Coast: 171,000
April 24, 2015	0.26	Combined: 569,000 | Report East Coast: 381,000 | West Coast: 188,000
May 1, 2015	0.25	Combined: 549,000 | Report East Coast: 418,000 | West Coast: 131,000
May 8, 2015	0.24	Combined: 463,000 | Report East Coast: 358,000 | West Coast: 105,000
May 15, 2015	0.24	Combined: 520,000 | Report East Coast: 395,000 | West Coast: 125,000
May 22, 2015	0.15	Combined: 317,000 | Report East Coast: 232,000 | West Coast: 85,000
Show Notes:	On May 22nd, a West Coast of TNA Slammiversary 2014 aired in the place of a new episode of IMPACT Wrestling.
May 29, 2015	0.28	Combined: 570,000 | Report East Coast: 413,000 | West Coast: 157,000
Show Notes:	The May 29th episode was the last IMPACT Wrestling to air on Friday night on Destination America.
June 3, 2015		Combined: 369,000 | Report East Coast: 297,000 | West Coast: 72,000
Show Notes:	The June 3rd episode was the first IMPACT Wrestling to air in the show’s new Wednesday night time slot on Destination America.
June 10, 2015		Combined: 404,000 | Report East Coast: 330,000 | West Coast: 74,000
June 17, 2015		Combined: 449,000 | Report East Coast: 347,000 | West Coast: 102,000
June 24, 2015		Combined: 451,000 | Report East Coast: 369,000 | West Coast: 82,000
July 1, 2015		Combined: 318,000 | Report East Coast: 267,000 | West Coast: 51,000
July 8, 2015		Combined: 453,000 | Report East Coast: 353,000 | West Coast: 100,000
July 15, 2015		Combined: 365,000 | Report East Coast: 293,000 | West Coast: 72,000
July 22, 2015
July 29, 2015
August 5, 2015
August 12, 2015
August 19, 2015
August 26, 2015
September 2, 2015
September 9, 2015
September 16, 2015
September 23, 2015
September 30, 2015
October 7, 2015
October 14, 2015
October 21, 2015
October 28, 2015
November 4, 2015
November 11, 2015
November 18, 2015
November 25, 2015
December 2, 2015
December 9, 2015
December 16, 2015
December 23, 2015
December 30, 2015
Averages
The 2014 averages will be calculated at the end of the year. Stay tuned!

The total viewership for any one episode of IMPACT Wrestling is hard to estimate. On his Twitter account, Eric Bischoff suggests that DVR numbers can add a total of 10% to 12% to the final viewership numbers. Historically, we’ve seen DVR+1 and DVR+3 figures (the amount of people who watch the show on their DVR within one day and three days of recording it) add 200,000 more viewers to the final viewership numbers reported above. Plus, the TNA Wrestling channel on YouTube posts a large portion of each episode online with no expiration date. These YouTube clips typically bring in between 50,000 and 100,000 viewers over the course of the first week that they are available. However, as DVR and YouTube viewers are not included in the television viewership estimates above, these figures are rarely if ever reported by professional wrestling “news” websites. We feel that it is necessary to report this information in order to provide a full definition for the entire spectrum of viewers for each episode. We feel that it is necessary to report this information in order to provide a full definition for the entire spectrum of viewers for each episode.