2011 Ratings Review

Happy New Year! First post of 2012, so I decided to look over the ratings for the 3 major shows, since I have been mentioning it a lot. I get my numbers from here, as usual.

At the time of writing this, some numbers are not in yet, and you always have to allow for a little bit of error or differences in rounding, but I think enough data is down to get the overall average yearly rating. Raw scored a 3.21, Smackdown an 1.95, and Impact an 1.17.

Not surprisingly, Raw did indeed score the lowest yearly average in over a decade. It is a lot lower than the 3.27 from 2008. I mocked the WWE a little for Raw scoring a 3.2 during their big CM Punk storyline during the summer, and it is funny that they pretty much walked away with a 3.2 for the year. What do you attribute the bad ratings to? NFL would not be a good answer. The WWE has always had to deal with that. You can say that Raw had the bad luck of falling on Independence Day and Halloween this year. That logic does not stand. Why do I say that? 2005. Raw had to deal with falling on these days that year too. They got a 3.81 that year. To put things in perspective a little, the yearly average was a 3.67 in 2004. It actually went up in 2005, even with the excuse of certain holidays. You have to look at the WWE's product if you want to understand the poor ratings for Raw. And you cannot say that the WWE did not try to boost ratings to nullify the effects of the Independence Day ratings. They brought back The Rock! The best ratings from 2011 came because of him. The CM Punk storylines and Triple H's COO matters were definitely meant to make things interesting again too. In between the 3.27 in 2008 and 3.28 in 2010, 2009 had a 3.57. What was the most memorable stunt from that year that most likely caused that great boost? Celebrities being a part of Raw. The WWE definitely tried to bring that back in 2011 too. The WWE also brought in Trish Stratus, Steve Austin, Vince McMahon, a little bit of Stephanie McMahon, Kevin Nash, masked Kane, and other such WWE names and characters that might have caused some buzz. Buzz was definitely there, but at the end of the say, horrible ratings.

Smackdown got turned on the right track. 1.81 in 2010. That 1.95 falls short of a nice 2.0, but going up is better than what Raw is doing. Ratings on this show started out well, while Edge was centerpiece. The collapse occurred after they gave Randy Orton the World title. The Mark Henry push managed to get some Smackdown ratings back above a 2.0. You can say that Mark Henry got the job done for Smackdown better than CM Punk did for Raw.

On the other side of the horrible ratings of Raw, Impact has indeed ended 2011 with the best ratings in its existence. That 1.17 beats out the 1.15 (1.14 according to Gerweck.net) from 2009. Not much, but still heading in the right direction and still a new high. I read one site say that they went the entire year without dropping below a 1.0. That goes back to what I said about differences in rounding. Did Impact score a 1.0 or 0.99 on Thanksgiving? Is it really a big deal? Considering that this may make this the first year where Impact did not drop below that 1.0, some might think so. I don't really feel like debating it, but the fact that some can even consider that the show stayed that strong throughout the year is good. Who do you thank? Well, TNA has to be glad to still have Sting. Ric Flair and Hogan are still there to draw with their names. Gail Kim is back to add more credibility to the women's division. You cannot deny that Mickie James has helped. A number of KO segments in 2011 did indeed continue to draw the best ratings of the night. Considering some of the names TNA has called up for their India project, they can definitely debut more talent on Impact that may cause a little interest. Keep in mind that this was not a perfect year for Impact. Jeff Hardy. Matt Hardy. And their booking and storylines are sometimes boring and stupid. That is a problem that they may not be fixing fast. Nevertheless, TNA is heading in the right direction.

I am not saying that the WWE is about to collapse and TNA will have a 4.0 by the end of the 2012. Impact has not beaten Raw in the ratings. It hasn't even beaten Smackdown. It outlasted Superstars. In terms of gains and losses, however, Impact is at a high, while Smackdown dances around a low and Raw is at a low. The ratings battle has not been won by TNA, but this can be seen as a moral victory that might give them some momentum. What has to be going through the WWE's mind when they see Raw's ratings?