SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last night’s episode of Impact Wrestling on Pop TV drew 342,000, a big jump in viewership from the 2017 average coming into the week of 296,000.
The show headlined with EC3 & Bobby Lashley vs. James Storm & Alberto El Patron, and opened with a Sony Six-Way Elimination match. It is a continuation of the tapings that took place in Mumbai, India.
It’s well above the year-ago viewership of 304,000. Their June average right now is 315,000, below last year’s June average after three weeks of 325,000. The eight week rolling average is now 297,000, well below the 320,000 eight-week rolling average a year ago.
This was the highest viewership since the 344,000 number on March 16. The last viewership total above 340,000 was back on Nov. 3, 2016 before a post-Thanksgiving collapse as Impact began airing best-of shows as its ownership future was up in the air and they ran out of fresh TV footage.
Keller’s Analysis: Up against the NBA Draft, this is a good and encouraging number for Impact. The NBA Draft drew 3.42 million viewers on ESPN. Let’s look at the next couple weeks to see if Impact has gained some new traction or if this is an outlier. It could be related to the fresh setting India leading to occasion viewers the last couple weeks deciding they liked the energy and new atmosphere.
Very nice number. Impact has been on a nice little streak lately. With most of the major sports on hiatus, I could see this continuing.
Usually around the summertime, they do pick up some buzz with viewers.