The final television viewership estimates as well as the current online viewership estimates for the latest episode of IMPACT Wrestling on Destination America are now available from ShowBuzzDaily.
Television Viewership
This week’s episode of IMPACT Wrestling brought in 353,000 television viewers during its first run on Destination America plus an additional 100,000 television viewers during the replay one hour after the first run episode ended. The total television audience for the first run and the replay adds up to 453,000 viewers. By comparison, this episode of IMPACT Wrestling brought in approximately 135,000 more viewers than last week’s episode and replay, which brought in a combined 318,000 viewers.
For those of you who are wondering, last night’s Ring of Honor drew in 128,000 viewers during its first run and 134,000 viewers during its replay, bringing the total audience for the show to 262,000 viewers.
Why Do We Report Replay Numbers In The Total Viewership?
There are two types of cable channels – single and dual feed channels. Destination America is a single feed channel, meaning that it does not have separate East Coast and West Coast feeds. In other words, programming scheduled to air on Destination America at 9:00pm EST will only air at 6:00pm PST. This is different from dual feed cable channels like USA and Spike. On these channels, programming scheduled to air at 9:00pm EST will also air at 9:00pm PST because the channel has a second (dual) feed for the West Coast.
When viewership numbers are reported for dual feed channels like USA and Spike, the reported number provides an estimate of viewers who watched a program at the same time on the clock (though several hours apart because of the time zone differences) from across the entire country. However, when viewership numbers are provided for first run programming on Destination America and other single feed cable channels, the reported number only gives an estimate of the viewers who watched the program when it aired, regardless of the time of the day. This is because the program only airs at one static time during the day (since there is no second feed for the West Coast time zone).
This issue is partially fixed when single feed channels like Destination America air replays for certain programming. For the West Coast, the replay airs during the same time on the clock as it aired during the first run on the East Coast, which mimics how a dual feed cable channel works (although with a single feed). By reporting the combined first run and replay airings of shows on single feed cable channels, one is given a more realistic estimate of the number of viewers who are watching the show during the same time of the day in their respective time zones across the country. The combined first run and replay viewership estimates for shows on single feed channels provides the closest comparison to first run viewership estimates on dual feed channels.
DVR, Online, And Other Viewership Information
The total viewership for any one episode of IMPACT Wrestling is hard to estimate. On his Twitter account, Eric Bischoff suggests that DVR numbers can add a total of 10% to 12% to the final viewership numbers. Historically, we’ve seen DVR+1 and DVR+3 figures (the amount of people who watch the show on their DVR within one day and three days of recording it) add 150,000 more viewers to the final viewership numbers reported above. On Steve Austin’s podcast, TNA President Dixie Carter suggests that sometimes DVR+3 numbers (which are not reported to the public) have added up to 40% to the final viewership numbers. Plus, the TNA Wrestling channel on YouTube posts a large portion of each episode online with no expiration date. These YouTube clips typically bring in between 50,000 and 100,000 viewers over the course of the first week that they are available. However, as DVR and YouTube viewers are not included in the television viewership estimates above, these figures are rarely if ever reported by professional wrestling “news” websites. We feel that it is necessary to report this information in order to provide a full definition for the entire spectrum of viewers for each episode.
Interested in learning more about IMPACT Wrestling’s historical ratings and viewership numbers? If so, then check out IWHeadlines.com’s Ratings War area. In the Ratings War area you can see a comparison of IMPACT Wrestling vs. Monday Night RAW from the spring of 2010 and IMPACT Wrestling vs. Superstars from all of 2010 and the first part of 2011. Also, you can see the change in viewership and ratings from TNA Wrestling’s decision to move their show to different start times and days of the week. Plus, you can see a comparison of IMPACT Wrestling’s viewership numbers from week-to-week in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and the ratings and viewership tracking information for 2015. Enjoy!
