By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

TNA Impact on Thursday, January 24 officially scored a 1.17 rating, essentially even with last week's 1.16 rating.

It's the highest rating in the new timeslot and, coincidentally, the highest rating since the same week in 2012 when the Jan. 26 episode scored a 1.17 rating.

Impact scored a 1.08 first hour rating (vs. 1.07 last week) and 1.26 second hour rating (vs. 1.25 rating last week).

The lowest quarter-hour rating was at the beginning of the show for Taz's explanation of last week's heel turn. Impact then peaked with a 1.36 rating at the top of the second hour for Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan addressing the wedding angle, with a new wave of viewers tuning in for the old first hour.

Impact then dipped one-tenth for the remainder of the show, finishing with a 1.22 rating for the TNA World Title main event of Jeff Hardy vs. Daniels.

First Hour Break Down

Q1: Impact opened with a 0.96 rating for Taz explaining his heel turn after a replay of the end of last week's Impact. Included was one commercial. This was a big difference from a 1.16 Q1 rating last week.

Q2: Impact bumped up to a 1.08 rating for Tara vs. Velvet Sky in a Knockouts Title match, plus pre and post-match segments and one commercial.

Q3: Impact stayed the same at a 1.08 rating for various video packages leading to Joseph Park's in-ring promo. Included were two full commercial breaks.

Q4: Impact bumped up to a 1.18 rating for Zema Ion & Kenny King vs. RVD & Christian York in X Division action, one commercial, and Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan coming to the ring to address the wedding angle last week.

Second Hour Break Down

Q5: Impact jumped to a 1.36 rating for Bully & Brooke addressing the wedding angle, Sting joining the discussion, one commercial, and video packages on Jeff Hardy.

Q6: Impact's audience jumped down one-tenth to a 1.24 rating for Bobby Roode vs. Hernandez, one commercial, and a video package on Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson.

Q7: Impact dipped to a second-hour-low 1.20 rating for Kurt Angle confronting Mr. Anderson, one commercial, an Aces & Eights video, and ring introductions for the TNA Title main event.

Q8: Impact increased slightly to a 1.22 rating for Hardy vs. Daniels in the main event, one commercial, and A&E attacking Hardy to close the show.

Caldwell's Analysis: There are a few ways of looking at the numbers. One is that TNA is still experiencing growing pains in the new, earlier timeslot, scoring below a 1.0 rating in the first 15 minutes. Another is there was interest in seeing Ray & Brooke address the wedding blow-up last week, but they lost some of the audience for the next 45 minutes.

Another is there was only a slight bump for Hardy vs. Daniels in the main event. Part of that could be TNA not going all the way to make that match must-see, as well as a complete shift in tone for how Daniels was presented at the start of the show - making it seem like Daniels was a babyface questing for his first TNA Title instead of setting up Daniels as this menacing, vile heel who could damage TNA if he became TNA champ (just like he damaged A.J. Styles), and Hardy was there to prevent this injustice from occurring.

[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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