TNA Just Can't Catch a Break
The news that WWE Smackdown is moving to Tuesdays (and airing live, and splitting from Raw) generated a lot of discussion yesterday. Absent from most of said discussion was talk about the current residents of Tuesday night wrestling, TNA.
That TNA has become an afterthought to most pro wrestling fans is hardly news. The promotion has gone from a struggling cable network to an under-distributed cable network to, now, an unknown cable network. All of this at a time where streaming is more popular and audiences are more fractionalized and all of the other problematic things that get written about modern linear television.
From the outside looking in, TNA's adventure on Pop TV has appeared to be especially harrowing.
The TNA-Pop marriage initially appeared to be a match made in heaven, with Pop in need of loyally watched content (TNA maintained 18-49 demographic ratings around 0.10, even with the limited distribution of Destination America) and TNA in need of wide distribution (Pop was available in 80 million American homes at the time they partnered with TNA). Pop also offered TNA a Tuesday night timeslot. TNA was able to avoid the death nights of Friday and Saturday, avoid WWE's shows on Monday and Thursday, and even avoid forcing wrestling fans to choose against NXT or Lucha Underground on Wednesday nights.
Unfortunately for TNA, things out of their control keep sabotaging them. First it was "The People vs. OJ Simpson", which came out of nowhere to become appointment viewing on Tuesday nights, right smack dab in the middle of TNA's older, male demographic. "The OJ Show", as it was fondly called by many fans, hampered TNA's chances of becoming Tuesday appointment viewing before the NBA Playoffs began by running from the beginning of February until early April. As expected, the NBA Playoffs have dominated Tuesday demo ratings since they tipped off in mid-April, leaving TNA and Pop little room to build.
Now comes the news that WWE is taking over Tuesday nights with live showings of Smackdown.
Smackdown is, in some ways, a far less powerful TV property than The OJ Show or the NBA Playoffs. Smackdown's demo ratings, which hover around 0.7 no matter what the Thursday night competition is, are well below the 1.2+ that The OJ Show regularly drew or the 2+ that many NBA Playoff games have been drawing.
The problem, of course, is that Smackdown is WWE wrestling. The last time TNA went head-to-head with WWE wrestling, the promotion lost hundreds of thousands of viewers that never came back.
Working in TNA's favor is the fact that the TNA product is different now. The weekly Impact show no longer has a heavy focus on wrestling stars from the 90's (or 80's, in some cases). It is possible that the TNA audience is an audience that is looking for something inherently different than WWE. Perhaps TNA viewers aren't even interested in Smackdown. Perhaps.
Of course, TNA viewers' attitudes on the current Smackdown show may be moot. WWE is planning to have Smackdown-specific wrestlers and angles once the move to Tuesdays happens, something that is not currently happening on Thursday night Smackdown episodes.
TNA management had to be especially frustrated that the Smackdown news broke on the same day some good ratings news came in. Tuesday night's (May 24, 2016) Impact drew a demo rating of 0.11, which is close to a record high on Pop. Overall viewership did reach a high on Pop, with approximately 359,000 viewers.
With no NBA Playoff game next Tuesday and a maximum of two remaining (if the NBA Finals finish in fewer than six games, then there will be only one more Tuesday NBA Playoff game this year), yesterday could have been a day of optimism for TNA and Pop. Instead, TNA will have to keep on surviving and wait for luck to turn in their favor.
That TNA has become an afterthought to most pro wrestling fans is hardly news. The promotion has gone from a struggling cable network to an under-distributed cable network to, now, an unknown cable network. All of this at a time where streaming is more popular and audiences are more fractionalized and all of the other problematic things that get written about modern linear television.
From the outside looking in, TNA's adventure on Pop TV has appeared to be especially harrowing.
The TNA-Pop marriage initially appeared to be a match made in heaven, with Pop in need of loyally watched content (TNA maintained 18-49 demographic ratings around 0.10, even with the limited distribution of Destination America) and TNA in need of wide distribution (Pop was available in 80 million American homes at the time they partnered with TNA). Pop also offered TNA a Tuesday night timeslot. TNA was able to avoid the death nights of Friday and Saturday, avoid WWE's shows on Monday and Thursday, and even avoid forcing wrestling fans to choose against NXT or Lucha Underground on Wednesday nights.
Unfortunately for TNA, things out of their control keep sabotaging them. First it was "The People vs. OJ Simpson", which came out of nowhere to become appointment viewing on Tuesday nights, right smack dab in the middle of TNA's older, male demographic. "The OJ Show", as it was fondly called by many fans, hampered TNA's chances of becoming Tuesday appointment viewing before the NBA Playoffs began by running from the beginning of February until early April. As expected, the NBA Playoffs have dominated Tuesday demo ratings since they tipped off in mid-April, leaving TNA and Pop little room to build.
Now comes the news that WWE is taking over Tuesday nights with live showings of Smackdown.
Smackdown is, in some ways, a far less powerful TV property than The OJ Show or the NBA Playoffs. Smackdown's demo ratings, which hover around 0.7 no matter what the Thursday night competition is, are well below the 1.2+ that The OJ Show regularly drew or the 2+ that many NBA Playoff games have been drawing.
The problem, of course, is that Smackdown is WWE wrestling. The last time TNA went head-to-head with WWE wrestling, the promotion lost hundreds of thousands of viewers that never came back.
Working in TNA's favor is the fact that the TNA product is different now. The weekly Impact show no longer has a heavy focus on wrestling stars from the 90's (or 80's, in some cases). It is possible that the TNA audience is an audience that is looking for something inherently different than WWE. Perhaps TNA viewers aren't even interested in Smackdown. Perhaps.
Of course, TNA viewers' attitudes on the current Smackdown show may be moot. WWE is planning to have Smackdown-specific wrestlers and angles once the move to Tuesdays happens, something that is not currently happening on Thursday night Smackdown episodes.
TNA management had to be especially frustrated that the Smackdown news broke on the same day some good ratings news came in. Tuesday night's (May 24, 2016) Impact drew a demo rating of 0.11, which is close to a record high on Pop. Overall viewership did reach a high on Pop, with approximately 359,000 viewers.
With no NBA Playoff game next Tuesday and a maximum of two remaining (if the NBA Finals finish in fewer than six games, then there will be only one more Tuesday NBA Playoff game this year), yesterday could have been a day of optimism for TNA and Pop. Instead, TNA will have to keep on surviving and wait for luck to turn in their favor.
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