By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Last night's episode of TNA Impact scored a 1.41 rating off a first hour 1.47 rating and second hour 1.35 rating.

Impact peaked in Q1 with a 1.53 rating for the opening segment featuring Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett, and Abyss. The segment continued into Q2 involving Jeff Hardy, Kevin Nash, and Sting. Q2 scored a 1.52 rating.

After Q2, Impact dropped about one-tenth of a point from Q3 to Q5. Impact then dropped off two-tenths of a point in Q6 and Q7 compared to the first two quarter-hours.

Impact closed with a 1.23 rating, which represents a three-tenths of a point drop off from the show-opening 1.53 rating. We do not have the Q9 over-run rating for the start of Reaction with the TV main event of Mr. Anderson vs. RVD.

First Hour Break Down

Impact opened with a 1.53 rating in Q1 and continued to a 1.52 rating in Q2. After the peak level of the show, Impact dropped to a 1.41 rating in Q3 for the backstage segment with Dixie Carter, Bischoff, and Hogan.

Impact then increased slightly to a 1.42 rating in Q4 for the first match of the show with the five-second Knockouts Title change, followed by backstage footage of JWoww interacting with the Beautiful People.

Second Hour Break Down

The second hour opened with a slight increase to a 1.43 rating in Q5. It was the peak rating for the second hour with the Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle confrontation.

From there, Impact dropped to a 1.35 rating in Q6 for the non-hyped Samoa Joe vs. Abyss match and Bischoff's backstage segment with Miss T. and Anderson.

In Q7, Impact increased slightly to a 1.37 rating for the unhyped Fortune vs. The Pope handicap match and the beginning of "The Shore" segment.

Impact then bottomed-out in Q8 with a 1.23 rating in Q8, dropping from the 1.37 rating in the previous quarter-hour. Q8 featured JWoww's appearance on the show confronting "The Shore" and two commercial breaks leading to the Impact over-run/Reaction start.

Caldwell's Analysis: The downward trend for Impact as the show went on wasn't good. They were still at a pretty high level for where Impact usually ranges, to where a 1.23 rating in Q8 would have been viewed as a success earlier this year when they were struggling to find an audience.

The key remains TNA's ability to retain an audience going forward after they had a show with a lot of interest coming off the "they" reveal and Bound for Glory PPV. Going forward, simply throwing out wrestling matches without any hype, back-story, or purpose and expecting the audience to care about wrestling when two out of the last three TV main events haven't even had a decision - and simply ended without any result - won't help their cause. We'll see what's ahead and see if TNA can capitalize on this latest ratings pop.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

We suggest these recent related articles...

TV RATINGS: TNA Impact & ROH TV viewership - Week 19 on Dest. America - Impact surges post-BFG, ROH draws big audience

TV WRESTLING VIEWERSHIP - Week of Sept. 28: Full Break Down of last week's Pro Wrestling TV with DVR viewing

TNA NEWS: TNA announces TV tapings on January U.K. Tour