First things first, let me apologize for not having a column last week. My TV job took me to Ocean Springs, MS. to cover Hurricane Gustav’s damage on South Mississippi. While the hurricane didn’t do a whole lot of damage, it rained its ass off and flooding was an issue for some folks down there. It was very cool shooting video when the outer bands of the storm were making landfall. The winds were probably 30-35 mph. and made keeping the camera steady a challenge.
If you click here: http://www.wreg.com/Global/Link.asp?L=318756 and go to page 5 on the video player and watch the video labeled “Keli Rabon on Gulf Coast” you can see the video I shot that Monday morning as the storm came thru.
Now, if you include the Memphis/Ole Miss football game I worked 2 Saturdays ago in addition to the 4 days I was in Ocean Springs, I ended up working 5 days of 12-15 hour days straight. Makes for a long week and honestly “What Memphis Watches” was the last thing on my mind. HaHaHa!!!
On to wrestling, this week’s shows felt the effect of the NFL football season kicking off as TNA Impact and WWE RAW’s ratings were down. Impact had been hovering around the 2.0 mark for a few weeks now but dropped 2/10th’s of a point this past Thursday. What stuck out to me was the 2nd hour of Impact when it started at 2.2 but lost half its viewers but the final quarter hour. Ouch!!!
RAW’s numbers fall every year at this time. When Monday Night Football starts up those casual viewers who were probably watching RAW because football was out of season have gone back to watching football and in turn RAW’s ratings dips a lil’ bit. Like Impact, RAW’s numbers during the 2nd hour dropped considerably which ironically happened to be the same hour that MNF had its strongest hour doing a 12 rating average. One thing I did notice was that RAW’s rating was slightly up from 2 weeks ago when it was up against the Tennessee/UCLA game. That game pulled a 13 rating. With all those factors considered, RAW has more than held its own on Monday nights.
What more can be said about Memphis Wrestling? It’s just not a show that wrestling fans want to see right now. I was SHOCKED when I saw the numbers from the show 2 weeks ago. You know its bad when you don’t even register on the meter. I will give them credit, they bounced back this week and registered numbers in all 4 quarter-hours. I’ll give them even more credit in the fact that the viewership increased with each quarter hour. While the numbers they did attract are not very good, they have to be encouraged that they kept their viewers this week.
Note: The ratings for RAW is listed as 2 separate hours. I will round off, to the highest number, the averages of both hours for the final rating.
If you have any questions or comments just email me at: rpg187@gmail.com.
Thanks and enjoy!!!
TNA Impact (Thursday) 9-04-08
Final Rating: 1.8 (29,169 viewers) 2 share
Quarter hours:
1st hour: 2.4 ( 35,651 viewers )
2.1 ( 34,031 )
1.8 ( 29,169 )
2.0 ( 32,410 )
2nd hour: 2.2 ( 34,031 viewers )
1.8 ( 29,169 )
1.2 ( 19,446 )
1.1 ( 17,826 )
WWE Friday Night Smackdown 9-05-08
Final Rating: 5.4 ( 87,507 viewers ) 8 share
Quarter hours:
1st hour: 5.1 ( 82,646 viewers )
5.5 ( 89,128 )
4.7 ( 76,164 )
4.7 ( 76,164 )
2nd hour: 5.2 ( 84,266 viewers )
5.8 ( 93,989 )
5.8 ( 93,989 )
6.0 ( 97,230 )
Memphis Wrestling 9-06-08
Final Rating: 0.6 ( 9723 viewers ) 1 share
Quarter hours: 0.2 ( 3241 viewers )
0.6 ( 9723 )
0.7 ( 11,344 )
0.8 ( 12,964 )
TNA Impact Replay 9-06-08
Final Rating: 1.4 ( 22,687 viewers ) 2 share
WWE A.M. 9-07-08
Final Rating: 0.5 ( 8103 viewers ) 1 share
WWE RAW 9-08-08
Final Rating: 4.3 ( 69,682 viewers ) 6 share
1st hour: 4.6 ( 74,543 viewers ) 6 share
Quarter hours: 4.0 ( 64,820 viewers )
4.4 ( 71,302 )
5.4 ( 87,507 )
4.4 ( 71,302 )
2nd hour: 4.0 (64,820 viewers ) 5 share
Quarter hours: 4.1 ( 66,441 viewers )
3.7 ( 59,959 )
3.7 ( 59,959 )
4.3 ( 69,682 )
Overrun: 2.4 ( 38,892 viewers )
----Ron Guidry works for a Memphis TV station and provides the rating analysis every week. He was formerly known as “The Penguin” with the old Kick Ass Wrestling promotion.----
