TNA ratings drop

[Jingus 0]

The only glaring different thing TNA has done is the biggest "different thing" they've done in 3 years, and that is give Joe the title.

There is another difference which I alluded to: the Knockouts division seemingly jumping the shark. For the past several months, the ladies segments consistently won the highest ratings. Then it went from being about Awesome Kong beating the shit out of bitches to being about two blonde skanks shaving someone's head. Once they went in that direction, for the first time in months, the girls lost ratings. Might be a coincedence, but I doubt it. I think the whole reason people tuned into the Knockouts was because they were the anti-Divas, a division where women were pushed on the basis of talent and personality rather than willingness to pose for Playboy. And as soon as the Diva-esque Angelina and Velvet became the focus of the division and started doing Russoriffic shit like the shaving-on-a-pole match, that turned a lot of people off. How else would you explain the one episode where the TNA debuts of relative unknowns Daizee Haze and Cheerleader Melissa in a straight no-angle wrestling match did significantly better numbers than the segments featuring Gail Kim & ODB vs. the porn twins, which actually lost viewers? Seems like a fairly clear pattern to me.

[The Truthiness 0]

I honestly think the The Beautiful People are good heels. I have no problem with Roxxi getting her head shaved, I've seen it reported that she didn't mind it, and it seem to help further 2 angles. The Beatutiful People becoming the Hollywood Blondes of the Knock Out division, amd Roxxi seeking revenge against them and it planted seeds for a Gail Kim heel turn, it all worked out fine to me.

[RedJed 0]

You guys understand that when you are talking about TNA's ratings going down, you're referencing generally a .1 to .2 percent drop that isn't even being consistent most weeks, right? I think its safe to say TNA gets, on average, about a million viewers a week, give or take a few hundred thousand less or more.

 

Comparing ratings in different weeks regarding Impact is like comparing apples and oranges, for the most part. I don't think anything TNA is doing or not doing really has an effect on the overall rating that much.

[Jingus 0]

I honestly think the The Beautiful People are good heels. I have no problem with Roxxi getting her head shaved,

Apparently both the Nielsen families and the live fans at the PPV disagree with you.

 

I've seen it reported that she didn't mind it

I knew from the instant they announced this head-shaving angle that there would be some "leaked" internet news about how the girl in question didn't mind or it was her idea or something similar. After the viciously negative reaction towards the angle by the crowd, such a leak became that much more certain. TNA is a company which feels like they've gotta spin negative press by any means possible, especially on the internet, which is of course an old Russo trademark.

 

Also, the reason given for Nikki being okay with the shaving: supposedly her hair was stripped up by the purple dye. Not that she originally suggested the idea, but that they asked her if she'd do it, and she was happy because her hair was fucked up anyway. Funny thing: I recently popped in an old DVD of the indy show we both worked four years ago, where I first met her. Her hair was a rainbow of different colors, the most striking of which were several big fat streaks of purple. Nothing seemed wrong with the hair back then, nor the few other times I saw her over the years when it was dyed other colors. I suppose it's possible that her hair just suddenly became magically vulnerable to the indsidious effect of dye (which had never harmed it before) right around the same time that TNA asked her to go Sinead, but a quick slice of Occam's Razor suggests otherwise.

 

Comparing ratings in different weeks regarding Impact is like comparing apples and oranges, for the most part. I don't think anything TNA is doing or not doing really has an effect on the overall rating that much.

If you're just talking about comparing two isolated shows with no context, then sure, you're right. But you can easily compare viewing patterns over a longer period of time and establish certain precedents. The Knockouts were consistently the highest-rated segments on the show. After the push of the Beautiful People and the shaving angle, that became no longer true. (Admittedly, this is being extrapolated from my own memories of online reports which were cribbed from the Observer, so if anyone has more specific numbers which either prove or disprove my theory, I'd love to know either way.) I know you have to beware logical fallacies of the post hoc ergo propter hoc variety, but in this case the causality and the result seem fairly straightforward.

[The Truthiness 0]

 

Apparently both the Nielsen families and the live fans at the PPV disagree with you.

If I cared about Nielsen families, I would've missed out on the best show ever. I like the The little porn stars, but I digress, I don't take women wrestling seriously enough to argue about it.

 

 

[FroGG_NeaL 0]

Why is evryone getting so pissy about Roxxi getting her head shaved? I don't remember a bunch of bitching when Molly Holly had her's shaved a few years back.

[Mike wanna be 0]

Why is evryone getting so pissy about Roxxi getting her head shaved? I don't remember a bunch of bitching when Molly Holly had her's shaved a few years back.

TNA's booking staff took something that was drawing very respectable ratings for the show it was on, and then ran an angle to literally butcher it to the point where the former highlight of the show & the company ended up costing them viewers.

They then proceeded to turn around and blame the worker for the angle's creation; even if we disregard the fact that Jingus' most recent post basically proves that the alleged reasoning behind it was bullshit, they intentionally redirected blame to a worker for coming up with a bad angle rather than blaming the bookers who OKed it, wrote it into the script and aired it.

[Jingus 0]

Why is evryone getting so pissy about Roxxi getting her head shaved? I don't remember a bunch of bitching when Molly Holly had her's shaved a few years back.

I bitched about that too. I'm consistent in my endless negativity. I would've also bitched about that chick getting her head shaved on the WOW PPV, if I'd given a shit about anything in that promotion not named Jaquelyn Hyde. (Seriously, who was that girl? Lousy wrestler, but she nailed the gimmick of a bipolar dissociative schizophrenic.)

[Mike wanna be 0]

I would've also bitched about that chick getting her head shaved on the WOW PPV, if I'd given a shit about anything in that promotion not named Jaquelyn Hyde. (Seriously, who was that girl? Lousy wrestler, but she nailed the gimmick of a bipolar dissociative schizophrenic.)

Allegedly she's Vasilika Vanya Marinkovic, but beyond a mention as being in As Time Goes By, I can't find anything else.

 

[Toxxic 0]

I'm a big fan of proper, no-gimmicks women's wrestling, yet I don't mind the Beautiful People. Mainly because they're playing up to the Diva role. It's like they're going around threatening to shave other peoples' heads because they think that looks are important, whereas Roxxi just wants to beat the hell out of them. And remember, she's not just pissed because they interfered and cost her her hair, they also interfered and cost her a title shot. There is still a wrestling motivation within this angle, it's just that Angelina and Velvet are the anti-Knockouts because they're obsessed with being pretty and dressing right instead of wrestling. As long as you make those characters the heels, I don't see a problem with it.

 

It's the big, big difference between TNA and WWE in that regard. WWE went 'ha ha, we've shaved Molly's head, laugh at the bald heel wrestler who's now humiliated' while TNA are going 'look, those shallow bitches contrived to save their own hair by getting someone else shaved because they thought that made them better than her, now it's just a matter of time before she gets her revenge by possibly shaving them in return, but definitely kicking their asses because losing her hair hasn't made her any less of a wrestler'.

[cabbageboy 0]

I actually thought the whore corp. were much more useless before the head shaving angle. This at least has given them a purpose for being on TV. And I'm not sure what numbers Jingus is quoting but here's something I found on another board from the Observer regarding recent ratings:

 

"The only segments to not lose any viewers were matches featuring the women. The Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong match following the marriage proposal segment stopped the bleeding and gained 25,000 viewers. However, the biggest gain of the show was reserved for surprise, surprise, Velvet Love & Angelina Love. "The Beautiful People" vs. ODB & Roxxi Laveaux match managed to pull in 176,000 viewers. This was the lowest rated show of the year with a 0.87 overall rating."

 

 

 

[Jingus 0]

Yeah, I just saw those numbers a minute ago. The ones I was talking about were from the episode where they had Daizee Haze vs. Cheerleader Melissa. So that may prove your theory right, maybe people didn't give a fuck about the bangbussers before but they do now since the shaving. I hate to think that bullshit actually got over, but hopefully it'll maybe help Roxxi's career in the longterm.

 

In the same summary (from Meltz):

The Kaz, Lethal & Dutt vs. Rock 'n' Rave Infection & Johnny Devine match and "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal's marriage proposal to SoCal Val following it lost 265,000 viewers for the 5/15 Impact.

We keep telling Truthiness that he's the only one who cares that much for Black Machismo...

[bob_barron 0]

Why is everyone getting so pissy about Roxxi getting her head shaved? I don't remember a bunch of bitching when Molly Holly had her's shaved a few years back.

 

There was lots of bitching when Molly had her head shaved

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I really like the Beatiful People. I've said before it's my favorite part of the show at this point. They're just easy to hate...and it helps that I want to fuck Velvet Sky more than any Diva...

 

Yeah...I like me the Beautiful People.

[cabbageboy 0]

I think the Beautiful People need some scumbag heel manager, just to make them even more revolting and hatable.

 

The Molly head shaving angle was way, way worse than this one. Bear in mind they did a head shaving there with a feud that nobody cared about and put it on WM XX in a spot after the Goldberg/Lesnar fiasco and the crowd was uber dead. So Molly got her head shaved and it didn't even draw the slightest reaction from the crowd.

[cd213 0]

You have to hand it to TNA with The Beautiful People. When you normally see a team of women that look good, they are the faces and someone like Roxxi would be the heel. TNA has gotten the Beautiful People over as heels.

[luke-o 0]

I'm just glad they're doing something with Angel Williams and Talia Madison. They are TOO pretty to be kept of TV.

[The Truthiness 0]

How else would you explain the one episode where the TNA debuts of relative unknowns Daizee Haze and Cheerleader Melissa in a straight no-angle wrestling match did significantly better numbers than the segments featuring Gail Kim & ODB vs. the porn twins, which actually lost viewers? Seems like a fairly clear pattern to me.

 

Yeah, I just saw those numbers a minute ago. The ones I was talking about were from the episode where they had Daizee Haze vs. Cheerleader Melissa. So that may prove your theory right, maybe people didn't give a fuck about the bangbussers before but they do now since the shaving. I hate to think that bullshit actually got over, but hopefully it'll maybe help Roxxi's career in the longterm. In the same summary (from Meltz):

The Kaz, Lethal & Dutt vs. Rock 'n' Rave Infection & Johnny Devine match and "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal's marriage proposal to SoCal Val following it lost 265,000 viewers for the 5/15 Impact.

We keep telling Truthiness that he's the only one who cares that much for Black Machismo...

 

 

You got caught in a lie Jingus, don't try to use me as a scapegoat, because you were clearly wrong about The BP. I never once said Jay Lethal drew ratings, I said he's the 3rd most over face on the show, he puts on the best matches, and he does well when asked to play a "serious character". That is all I said, and I still standy by my statement of saying, he could be TNA Champion. You on the othe hand said, BP/Roxxi feud lost viewers, when the fact is they drew viewers. Which mean the head shaving angle worked.

[LuckyLopez 0]

He didn't get caught in a lie. Those are 2 completely different segments. The Beautiful People vs Kim and ODB weeks ago lost viewers. The Beautiful People vs ODB and Roxxi this week drew viewers. If he did anything wrong it was making a conclusion off of ratings jumps too quickly based on too little. Which he seemed to freely acknowledge by saying that the angle might have actually worked and interested people in Roxxi and the girls. But even saying that based off of 1 segment in 1 week would seem like too quick of a conclusion.

 

I think this whole thread is kind of the same thing. There's a basic margin of error in Nielson's ratings and dips and spikes that come and go. There's opposing viewing and different seasons. Even IF there was a real dip seen in the ratings since Joe became champ it could be chalked up to the Office and Lost going into their season finales. Or the weather getting nicer. Or the sports world having a lot happening. Honestly, there's a lot of different possibilities. Its also plenty possible that Joe isn't a draw. But drawing patterns off of minor changes over short periods of time just seems iffy at best to me. But I'm in no way an experienced player in ratings games.

[Jingus 0]

He didn't get caught in a lie. Those are 2 completely different segments. The Beautiful People vs Kim and ODB weeks ago lost viewers. The Beautiful People vs ODB and Roxxi this week drew viewers.

Exactly, calm down with the quickly thrown insults. If the angle confounds my expectations and actually gets over, well, hooray for them I guess. But I doubt they can do anything to change my opinion that the whole shaving angle was just awful, period.

[The Truthiness 0]

He didn't get caught in a lie. Those are 2 completely different segments. The Beautiful People vs Kim and ODB weeks ago lost viewers. The Beautiful People vs ODB and Roxxi this week drew viewers.

Exactly, calm down with the quickly thrown insults. If the angle confounds my expectations and actually gets over, well, hooray for them I guess. But I doubt they can do anything to change my opinion that the whole shaving angle was just awful, period.

 

It was a awful idea ( I mean it was a TNA original, so that is expected), but the The BP have made it work. Which is all I really watch TNA for in a nutshell. I like too see which characters can take these goofy angles, and make them work somehow. This is why I like Rhoode, Lethal, Storm, Styles, sometimes 3D, Steiner and now The BP. They all have taken shit, and made gold with some of the stupid shit TNA has done with them. I don't really expect booking to get any better, but you can tell who the good performers are because even with all the bullshit, they still find away to get over and not only in the Impact Zone.

[FroGG_NeaL 0]

I think the Beautiful People need some scumbag heel manager, just to make them even more revolting and hatable.

 

The Molly head shaving angle was way, way worse than this one. Bear in mind they did a head shaving there with a feud that nobody cared about and put it on WM XX in a spot after the Goldberg/Lesnar fiasco and the crowd was uber dead. So Molly got her head shaved and it didn't even draw the slightest reaction from the crowd.

 

 

That was my point when i brought it up, i just didn't go into it. The Roxxi angle is turning out to be alright. The Molly angle was pointless as hell, and the way it was done was terrible. The Roxxi angle is at least getting over a few people and adding to characters instead of just doing it for no reason at all.

 

And I really dont remember all this bitching that went down over Molly. But, I'll take you guys' word on it.

[Garbageman 0]

I wasn't watching during the Molly headshaving: but with Roxxi, it just seems so vulgar. The match was initially booked to punish the women for being too big for their britches apparently: she got screwed over, humiliated (which turns her into the most sympathetic face on the roster) and keeps getting beaten up every week. Unless they're building up to where (as suggested by someone else on the board) she just kills the Beautiful People in a handicap match (like blade jobs, getting stretchered out) and then is the one to end Kong's reign of terror, it's not going to be worth it.

[Old School 0]

Was the Molly head shaving the culmination of her being a heel because she was a virgin, or her being a heel because she had a big BUTT?

[FroGG_NeaL 0]

I'm pretty sure it was because she was a virgin.

 

The big BUTT shit was right before she left, I think.

 

I just want everybody to keep in mind that niether of them had to have thier heads shaved. They could refuse, and either quit or get fired.

 

There's way worse things that mofuckers do on wrestling shows besides get thier heads shaved.

[Toxxic 0]

Was the Molly head shaving the culmination of her being a heel because she was a virgin, or her being a heel because she had a big BUTT?

 

Keep in mind that the WWE are providing positive role models for women at all times.