The Thursday Night Ratings War (May 2010 – Present)
Since we put so much work into creating this area of TNAStars.com, we’ve decided to keep it up and running even after TNA decided to retrench back to Thursday nights. So, TNAStars.com is proud to bring you a bit of a tongue-in-cheek version of the Thursday Night Ratings War between TNA iMPACT! and WWE Superstars. Why tongue-in-cheek? Well, for starters the two shows don’t compete in a head-to-head time slot as iMPACT! airs from 9:00pm EST until 11:00pm EST and Superstars airs from 8:00pm EST until 9:00pm EST. Also, Superstars generally brings in a significantly lower rating than iMPACT! so there really is no “war” to speak of (actually, this is somewhat reminiscent of the “Monday Night Ratings War” between WWE and TNA). Oh, and Superstars is a syndicated show that also has a replay while iMPACT! is a regularly scheduled show on a standard cable channel making it consistently more available in potential viewer homes.

For the results of the short-lived battle between TNA and WWE on Monday nights, please scroll down to the bottom of this page. Enjoy!

May 13, 2010	0.93 (0.90 / 0.96)	0.61
Show Notes:	The May 13th episode of TNA iMPACT! marked the show’s return to it’s 9:00pm EST to 11:00pm EST time slot. Also note that WWE Superstars airs from 8:00pm EST to 9:00pm EST, an hour earlier than TNA iMPACT!, and thus these ratings results do not represent a head-to-head competition.
May 20, 2010	0.96 (0.90 / 1.01)	0.77
May 27, 2010	0.96 (0.91 / 1.01)	0.65
June 3, 2010	0.87 (0.87 / 0.88)	0.76
June 10, 2010	0.99 (0.98 / 1.00)	0.84
June 17, 2010	0.99 (0.95 / 1.03)	0.35
Show Notes:	The June 17th episode of TNA iMPACT! on Spike TV aired head-to-head against WWE Superstars on WGN America during the 9:00pm EST to 10:00pm EST hour. Thus, the ratings for the first hour of this episode of iMPACT! can be directly compared to this week’s episode of Superstars.
June 24, 2010	0.99 (0.97 / 1.00)	0.56
July 1, 2010	0.99 (0.93 / 1.05)	0.55
July 8, 2010	1.15 (1.11 / 1.18)	0.64
July 15, 2010	1.09 (1.06 / 1.11)	0.74
July 22, 2010	1.06 (1.06 / 1.07)	0.65
July 29, 2010	1.22 (1.16 / 1.28)	0.74
August 5, 2010	1.21 (1.12 / 1.30)	0.66
August 12, 2010	1.15 (1.05 / 1.25)	0.65
Show Notes:	The August 12th episode of TNA iMPACT! was featured as “The Whole F’N Show” on Spike TV. This show featured the match card of the previously scheduled Hard Justice pay-per-view event which was bumped to accommodate HardCORE Justice. This show featured only wrestling with no backstage interviews.
August 19, 2010	0.97 (0.91 / 1.03)	0.63
August 26, 2010	1.07 (1.03 / 1.11)	0.59
September 2, 2010
Italicized = Projected Rating                 Bold = Ratings Winner for the Week

 
The Monday Night Ratings War (March 2010 – May 2010)
Throughout the late 1990′s World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) waged what would come to be known as the Monday Night War. WCW showcased their professional wrestlers on Monday NITRO while WWF put their sports entertainment performers on Monday Night RAW. The war ended in 2001 with Vince McMahon’s WWF victorious in the head-to-head competition. Ultimately, the WWF purchased WCW which effectively created a monopoly in the North American professional wrestling business.

A few years after the sale of WCW, a start-up company named Total Nonstop Action (TNA) was created in Tennessee. TNA continued to grow until it eventually signed former WCW President Eric Bischoff and WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan to exclusive contracts. These contracts allowed Bischoff and Hogan to resume their war against McMahon and his Monday Night RAW.

On Monday, January 4, 2010 for the first time ever, TNA presented its iMPACT! program on a Monday night. The results of this three hours extravaganza were sufficient enough for the officials at Spike TV to give TNA a two hour slot each Monday night starting on Monday, March 5, 2010. While RAW is produced as a live show each week, iMPACT! is currently live one week and taped the next. Below are the ratings results from each Monday night where iMPACT! and Monday Night RAW have competed head-to-head (the winner in the ratings is indicated in bold).

January 4, 2010	1.45 (1.69 / 1.44 / 1.28)	3.62 (3.51 / 3.73)
Show Notes:	The January 4th episode of TNA iMPACT! was a one-time experiment as TNA debuted Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Hardy, Shannon Moore, Sean Morley, Orlando Jordan, and more in their attempt to compete directly with WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night RAW. The shows competed head-to-head from 9:00pm to 11:00pm EST.
March 8, 2010	0.99 (1.01 / 0.96)	3.42 (3.26 / 3.56)
March 15, 2010	0.84 (0.80 / 0.88)	3.71 (3.68 / 3.73)
March 22, 2010	0.86 (0.83 / 0.87)	3.24 (2.97 / 3.51)
March 29, 2010	0.57 (0.53 / 0.60)	3.66 (3.53 / 3.79)
April 5, 2010	0.87 (0.91 / 0.82)	3.17 (3.33 / 3.00)
Show Notes:	The April 5th episode of TNA iMPACT! began at 8:00pm EST and thus only competed head-to-head against Monday Night RAW from 9:00pm to 10:00pm EST. The NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship between Duke and Butler started at 9:20pm this night, prompting TNA to change iMPACT!’s start time.
Beginning with the April 12, 2010 episode of iMPACT!, the show’s start time was officially changed from 9:00pm to 8:00pm EST. Consequently, beginning on April 12, 2010, iMPACT! and Monday Night RAW will only compete head-to-head during the 9:00pm to 10:00pm EST hour.
April 12, 2010	0.78 (0.80 / 0.76)	3.20 (3.00 / 3.40)
April 19, 2010	0.95 (1.00 / 0.90)	3.05 (3.00 /3.10 )
April 26, 2010	0.50 (0.50 / 0.50)	3.07 (2.60 / 3.27 / 3.34)
May 3, 2010	0.78 (0.91 / 0.66)	3.05 (2.90 / 3.20)
On May 3rd, TNA Wrestling announced that it was moving its flagship show, TNA iMPACT!, back to Thursday nights effective Thursday, May 13, 2010. In addition, it was announced that the start time for iMPACT! was moving back to 9:00pm EST. It is not expected that TNA will move iMPACT! back to Monday nights in the future.
Average Rating	0.86	3.32
The numbers above include the initial head-to-head competition from January 4, 2010. When excluding that show and looking at the 9-week “Monday Night War” between TNA iMPACT! and WWE RAW, WWE RAW averages a 3.29 rating while TNA iMPACT! averages a 0.79 rating.