By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

TNA Impact Wrestling on Thursday, August 4 officially scored a 1.14 rating with a first hour 1.16 rating and second hour 1.13 rating.

It was the first time in six weeks and only the second time out of the last 14 weeks where the second hour scored below the first hour rating. Impact has historically struggled to build an audience from the first hour to second hour, but TNA has reversed the trend the second-half of 2011.

Impact's second hour rating was likely dragged down by the season premiere of MTV's "Jersey Shore," which aired at 10:00 pm. EST against the second hour of Impact. Impact bottomed out in the eighth quarter-hour during the Sting-Kurt Angle contract signing with a 1.06 rating.

Impact's peak segment was a 1.25 rating at the top of the second hour. Impact then dropped to a 1.10 in Q6 and Q7 before bottoming-out in Q8.

First Hour Break Down

Q1: Impact opened with a 1.19 rating, which was the highest Q1 rating out of the last six weeks and second-highest out of the last 14 weeks.

The segment featured Immortal's standard show-opening talking segment. The rating was still still below the 2011 average for the first quarter-hour. (down 1.2% vs. 2011 average)

Q2: Impact scored a 1.21 rating, which was the highest quarter-hour rating of the first hour and second-highest of the show. It was also the only quarter-hour above its 2011 average.

The segment featured the Knockouts match of Tessmacher vs. Madison Rayne, one commercial, and A.J. Styles vs. Brother Devon in a BFG Series match. (up 3.0% vs. 2011 average)

Q3: Impact dropped to a first hour-low 1.10 rating. The segment included one commercial break leading into backstage segments and Samoa Joe vs. The Pope. (down 7.2% vs. 2011 average)

Q4: Impact increased to a 1.14 rating for Joe's post-match tirade, one commercial, and the first-half of Robert Roode vs. Hernandez in a Street Fight. (down 0.3% vs. 2011 average/essentially flat)

Second Hour Break Down

Q5: Impact increased to a show-high 1.25 rating for the end of Roode-Hernandez, one commercial, and the first-half of Austin Aries vs. Alex Shelley. (down 0.7% vs. 2011 average/essentially flat)

Q6: Impact began its second-hour decline with 1.10 rating for the end of Aries-Shelley, one commercial, and the Sting-Angle production truck segment commenting on previous matches. (down 8.4% vs. 2011 average)

Q7: Impact remained at a 1.10 rating for a commercial followed by the TV main event of Steiner & Gunner vs. RVD & Crimson. (down 7.0% vs. 2011 average)

Q8: Impact bottomed-out with a 1.06 rating for the Sting-Angle contract signing, which was preceded by one commercial break. (down 13.6% vs. 2011 average)

Caldwell's Analysis: Tough week to evaluate the ratings up against an MTV show pulling away TNA's younger demographic, but it's apparent the contract signing advertised for the end of the show did not entice viewers to stick around. It doesn't necessarily mean Hardcore Justice will do any worse than a typical TNA PPV fares, as the two aren't necessarily related, but there has been evidence in the quarter-hours lately supporting the conclusion that Sting (and most of the brand-name stars) are over-exposed. It's also quite convenient Hogan and Bischoff were not part of this show, which was expected to do a below-average rating against the Jersey Shore premiere.

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