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Yesterday I wrote a Keller's Take listing 12 recent changes in Impact, and then examined whether they might be the reasons for the recent ratings drop. None seemed to be a reasonable explanation for the loss of viewers recently. Then I asked for reader theories on why Impact dropped last week to an 11 month low. Here's a few responses, then I will chime back in with some thoughts...

Jason Bentley suggested the following: "I have one overall thing to add to your list of specific things that may have attributed to the ratings drop. We often don't even think of this as a possibility, but maybe the viewers that bring that 1.0 to 1.2 rating enjoy the Russo, Dutch, and Jarrett team's brand of mile-a-minute crash tv. Maybe the changes that we see as positive are viewed as negative by them. Take the show 'Cops.' I would be willing to bet that some of the people that watch that show would stop watching if the producers started showing the court proceedings that follow these arrests. In my opinion, that would make the show more entertaining, and I might actually watch it. But if for every person like me that starts watching this arguably better version of 'Cops,' three of their regular veiwers turn away, thats a bad move for them to make."

Ben Webb has a specific suggestion: "I've been watching Impact since it started on FOX 8 in Australia. I usually record Impact on my Foxtel IQ DVR so I can scan through the FOX 8 promo breaks. The main tweak I would make is to never cut to an ad break during a match. One of the worst cut to an ad breaks of recent times was during Hamada's debut against Daffney. My next major tweak is to always build up the following episodes matches. I dislike matches being thrown out without sufficient build up. My final tweak is that the writers/bookers keep a closer eye on resolving storylines. The most recent example of this that is really annoying me is the lack of continuation of the MCMG & Lethal Consequences trying to unmask Suicide storyline. I'll acknowledge that these tweaks address many of the faults continually raised by the various PWTorch contributors. They might not be totally original on my part but there are the only way to improve and strengthen Impact. The last tweak I'd make while not a tweak to Impact would greatly improve Impact. I would make the PPVs quarterly. In my opinions this would give feuds more time to build up instead of being rushed by the demands of monthly PPVs. It would also really benefit the knockouts division because it would give more match and promo time, to what's in my eyes a quite diverse and strong roster. I have much more passion for TNA than WWE these days, and TNA needs to be strong to give genuine competition to a pretty tired and stale WWE.

Daniel Williams put it bluntly: "The reason for the ratings dropping is due to football.  They had to go against the NFL preseason and last week was college football."

Matt Guerra adds to Daniel's theory: "Other sports starting up such as the NFL and College Football has started to draw away the male viewer. But this isn't the only reason. Their ratings have been stagnant for months at the 1.2-1.3 level. What is missing is the big angle. Who's driving the black hummer, who is marrying Stephanie McMahon, who killed Vince, who is Katie Vick... okay, maybe not that last one, but there's no reason to watch Impact other then you know some of the older guys and some of the newer guys are good in the ring. There has to be that "it" factor. There has to be something controversial going on to get people talking. Wrestling as a whole has been missing it, TNA needs to take advantage of the terrible product the WWE is putting out. They need to give me a reason to watch. They need to run over The Rock with a truck and leave me in suspense to see if he survived. I don't need a backstage brawl with phony cops, what I need is someone running over Bobby Lashley with a car and the show ending with Taz yelling "Who the hell is driving that car!" Until TNA gets that, they'll always stay in the 1.0-1.3 range. They can make a living in that range, but if they want to be a big deal they have to think big. Think, hey I have great wrestlers here with some aging but still talented guys... now if I could just throw in some really controversial storylines people will watch and see that my roster is way better than the competition... because we let them wrestle. Dixie Carter, it is time to wake up and smell the coffee... it's not hard to watch some wrestling tapes of when it was good and steal the material. Just like a sitcom, rehash the same storyline... just make it your own!"

KELLER'S TAKE: I think the top reason for the ratings drop is the outside force of college football. I know within Spike TV they anticipate TNA Impact taking a hit in the key young male demographic around this time of year.

What I didn't see with TNA four or five weeks ago is the beginning of a storyline arc to combat the annual introduction of football competition on Thursday nights. While new competition is a reason for a ratings drop, it's not an excuse - in the sense that TNA should do everything possible to create a storyline that climaxes at a time when they expect to face stiff competition. Rather than give up, combat it with a match that's been built up for weeks or a big promo where a wrestler speaks for the first time in weeks about a major happening.

The good news within the rating last Thursday was that the show began at a 0.89 for Q1 and ended at a 1.04 for Q8 and only once during the sohw did the rating drop (and that was Q6 when there were two commercial breaks in the segment).

The 0.89 is a terrible starting point, though. The show began the week before with a 1.05 quarter and ended at a 1.05, with peaks and valleys throughout, including a 1.23 in Q3 and a 1.20 in Q6. The week before the show opened even better, with a 1.13, and ended at a strong 1.28, but it was all over the place within with jumps from 1.06 to 1.18 and then down to 1.14 and up to 1.26.

If I'm a booker, both the starting point and the build of the audiece during the show are two important measuring points besides the overall rating. The fact that the starting point was the lowest in a long time set the show back at the start, but the fact that it gained six out of seven quarter hours that followed is a compliment to the build-up throughout the show of what was coming up later. So there's a positive to build on within the lower overall number, which is probably mostly due to football and not any of those 12 recent changes in Impact I listed yesterday (scan down this page to the Keller's Take listing for the link to yesterday's article).

Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.

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