Dixie Carter Speaks - Vince McMahon, Future Plans, IMPACT!, More

The other day Dixie Carter announced that she would take questions from TNA fans on Twitter. Today, TNA posted the first round of answers, check them out…

Adam in Chicago - Q: Just wondering if TNA plans to add a second show soon. I'd love that a lot more than just a reairing of Impact!

A: At this time there are no plans to create a second brand to iMPACT! (a la Smackdown), but we are developing two new shows. Look for updates in the near future.

Gabe Ross, Athens, OH - Q: Ratings are a big deal for any company. What are your short and long-term goals in terms of ratings for TNA?

A: Good question. I want to be very clear on this, we NEVER expected to have competitive ratings with RAW at the beginning. I have been very specific in saying that our goal was to grow our brand and our ratings and we felt like we could do that faster on Mondays. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take a big step forward. We expected to have to rebuild part of our audience when moving our programming day and timeslot. We have finally settled in to an 8 pm ET/7 pm CT Monday timeslot with an encore presentation on Thursdays as 9 pm ET. It is going to take some time to build both audiences. We have no ego in saying iMPACT! has to draw a big rating in one night. With the encore, we have grown our overall viewing audience significantly from 2009 averages. We have 4 hours of exposure in prime time on Spike TV. So short term, we have settled in to a new programming schedule and need to give both some time to grow, but are happy with our increased viewership. Long term we want to see the overall ratings for iMPACT! increase significantly, no matter how many airings we have.

Chris Duke, Glasgow - Q: Are there any plans to go live in the UK? And to hold televised events over here?

A: We would love to see both happen, but those are questions for Bravo, our network in the UK, to answer. Both would be their call.

Mark Johns, Lackawanna NY - Q: I was wondering if we were going to see a more expanded travel schedule and bring Impact on the road?

A: In 2007, TNA toured 12 shows on the road. In 2010, we are scheduled to tour approximately 90 dates domestically and internationally. TNA is just starting to establish our live events business; however, we are just not in a position to tour iMPACT! at this point. Touring a television production is very expensive and we must grow our brand significantly before we would consider this business decision.

Jared in NYC - Q: The move to Mondays looks like a failure when you're changing the timeslot a month later? Thoughts?

A: We discussed both the 8 – 10 pm ET and 7-9 pm ET timeslots with Spike before we moved to Mondays. It would be a failure to stay in a timeslot when you think another one might offer a greater chance for growth. When we started iMPACT! at 8 pm ET for the 3-hour January 4th special and on April 5th when we moved an hour earlier to get a jump on the NCAA Men's basketball championship game, we saw higher viewership. Instead of moving back to 9 pm the following week, we decided to leave the start time at 8 pm ET and build that timeslot. Now it's up to TNA, Spike and all of you to spread the word.

Brian from Canton, OH – Q: Do you listen to wrestling podcasts on iTunes?

A: No, I don't. I would rather get my input directly from fans like I do from my Facebook, Twitter or in person (always the most fun), and not from sources who are giving their opinions to the viewers.