The primary way that television executives judge whether or not their programming is successful is by the final ratings number and viewership estimates that the program receives after each airing. This is no different in the world of professional wrestling. Below you can find links to the history of the brief Monday night ratings war between iMPACT Wrestling and WWE RAW and the equally brief Thursday night ratings war between iMPACT Wrestling and WWE Superstars. In fact, you can even find links to the data showing a comparison between the ratings of WWE Monday Night RAW and WCW Monday NITRO from the mid-to-late 1990′s! This page is updated frequently, so please be sure to check back each week for the latest information on the ratings and viewership estimates for iMPACT Wrestling.

2012 – iMPACT Wrestling Goes Live and Starts an Hour Earlier

2011 – Winning the Thursday Night War; Building a Thursday Night Audience

2010 – Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff Join iMPACT Wrestling; A Monday Night War Begins; iMPACT Wrestling Retrenches to Thursdays

2001 – WWE Purchases WCW; The War is Over

2000 – WWE RAW Goes Undefeated for a Second Year

1999 – WWE RAW is Undefeated for the Entire Year

1998 – After Years of Losing, WWE RAW Begins to Beat WCW NITRO

1997 – WCW NITRO Dominates the Ratings War

1996 – A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend Brings Us the nWo

1995 – The Ratings War Begins…

Starting an Hour Later to Build a Bigger, Broader Audience (January 2013 – Present)
In 2011, iMPACT Wrestling achieved its highest average rating and highest estimated viewership in the history of the show’s tenure on Spike TV. Also in 2011, iMPACT Wrestling taped 8 of its 52 episodes in arenas located outside of the iMPACT Wrestling Zone at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. One of the biggest successes of 2011 was the October 20, 2011 episode which was the first episode in the show’s history to bring in more than two million viewers.

These successes provide a great base of accomplishment for the promotion to build on in 2012. In 2012, iMPACT Wrestling needs to find new ways to expand its viewership. The company also needs to find new and innovative avenues to take its show on the road in exciting yet affordable ways. One of the biggest challenges that iMPACT Wrestling has in 2012 will likely be finding new ways to advertise its weekly two hour program to a larger television and general entertainment audience. Below you’ll find a chart showing the rating and viewership estimate for each week’s episode. Since the method by which cable ratings are calculated can often be confusing and at the whim of major television events, the viewership estimate figure tends to give a much more legitimate indication of how iMPACT Wrestling performed. More details on viewership, in general, can be found below the chart.

January 3, 2013	1.14 (1.06 / 1.23)	1,618,000
January 10, 2013	1.02 (0.98 / 1.06)	1,300,000
January 17, 2013	1.16 (1.07 / 1.25)	1,600,000
January 24, 2013	1.17 (1.08 / 1.26)	1,572,000
January 31, 2013	1.16 (1.07 / 1.26)	1,580,000
Show Notes:	The January 31st episode was the first in a series of episodes taped in the United Kingdom.
February 7, 2013	1.03 (0.94 / 1.13)	1,412,000
Show Notes:	The February 7th episode was the second in a series of episodes taped in the United Kingdom. It was also an Open Fight Night themed episode of the show.
February 14, 2013	1.00 (0.92 / 1.08)	1,295,000
Show Notes:	The February 14th episode was the third in a series of episodes taped in the United Kingdom.
February 21, 2013	1.02 (0.96 / 1.08)	1,352,000
Show Notes:	The February 21st episode was the fourth and final in a series of episodes taped in the United Kingdom.
February 28, 2013	1.14 (1.05 / 1.24)	1,493,000
Show Notes:	The February 28th episode aired live from the iMPACT Wrestling Zone at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was the second to last show to emanate from that soundstage.
March 7, 2013	1.13 (1.11 / 1.15)	1,425,000
Show Notes:	The March 7th episode aired live from the iMPACT Wrestling Zone at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was the last show to emanate from that soundstage.
March 14, 2013	1.07 (0.96 / 1.17)	1,410,000
Show Notes:	The March 14th episode aired live from the Sears Center in Chicago, Illinois. It was the first show to utilize the new format for the program where one week is live and the next week is taped after the live show.
March 21, 2013	1.07 (1.01 / 1.14)	1,390,000
March 28, 2013	1.03 (0.92 / 1.14)	1,310,000
April 4, 2013	1.11 (1.10 / 1.12)	1,425,000
April 11, 2013	0.93 (0.82 / 1.03)	1,170,000
April 18, 2013	0.97 (0.91 / 1.03)	1,268,000
April 25, 2013	0.98 (0.85 / 1.11)	1,230,000
May 2, 2013	0.94 (0.91 / 0.97)	1,104,000
May 9, 2013	0.98 (0.91 / 1.06)	1,270,000
May 16, 2013	0.84 (0.80 / 0.87)	1,105,000
May 23, 2013	1.07	1,379,000
Average Rating
The 2013 averages will be calculated at the end of the year. Stay tuned!
* This final cable rating is an estimated figure.

Remember, though, 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 200,000 more viewers to the final viewership numbers reported above. Plus, Spike.com uploads each full episode of iMPACT Wrestling to its website for free online streaming for approximately a four month period. The streaming versions of the show on Spike.com typically generate between 5,000 and 20,000 views before they are taken down (some special episodes have many more viewers, others have less). Also, the TNA channel on YouTube posts a large portion of each episode online with no expiration date. These YouTube clips typically bring in between 10,000 and 50,000 viewers. However, as DVR, Spike.com, 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.