By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

TNA Impact on Thursday, October 4 scored a year-low 0.84 rating, down 18 percent from last week's 0.99 rating. The rating was slightly lower than a 0.85 rating on July 12 during the DirecTV black-out.

Impact dropped to an average of 1.06 million viewers, which was down 20 percent from last week. It was the fewest viewers of the year - fewer than 1.11 million viewers on July 12. Overall, it was the fewest viewers in over two years dating back to June 3, 2010 against the NBA Finals.

- The demographic ratings were only slightly down or flat compared to last week, except for males 18-49, which was down one-tenth of a rating (17 percent). It was the lowest m18-49 rating of the year. Impact also scored a year-low in adults 18-49.

- On cable TV Thursday night, Impact ranked #49 in overall viewers, #70 in adults 18-49, #25 in males 18-34, and #20 in males 18-49.

In key male ratings, Impact was topped by programming on History, Discovery, Cartoon Network, TBS repeats, and the FX movie "Grown Ups." Meanwhile, the NFL game of the week was down to 6.4 million viewers after averaging 8.0 million viewers last week.

Caldwell's Analysis: It's pretty clear the product is lacking momentum heading into Bound for Glory. I thought last week's show felt dark and depressing, but in a different way than in previous years. It seems like TNA wants to create an edgy, FX-type show, but they have not shown the ability to pull it off. Not only has the current product not drawn in a new audience, now it's repelling the existing audience. This is highlighted by questionable booking decisions to focus on the Aces & Eights angle that has dragged on for months and failed to produce ratings growth, an abrupt change in direction for the Bound for Glory PPV main event (based on TNA not building momentum behind Jeff Hardy before he won the BFG Series), and recent over-exposure of their year-long feud, James Storm vs. Bobby Roode.

It's also worth considering whether WWE's over-saturation of the wrestling market has affected TNA. Perhaps viewers of both WWE and TNA programming have been overwhelmed by the amount of wrestling now available on TV that Thursday nights has become skippable.

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