Impact Sees Big Drop In Second Week On Thursday, "Dark Side" Ranks Higher On Cable Top 150

Thursday's taped post-Hardcore Justice edition of Impact Wrestling, featuring the Rebellion press conference for AEW World Champion Kenny Omega vs. Impact World Champion Rich Swann, drew 132,000 viewers on AXS TV, according to Showbuzz Daily. The show drew a 0.04 rating in the key 18-49 demographic.

This was the second Impact episode to air on Thursday nights.

This week's Impact ranked #138 on the Cable Top 150 for the key demo, and ranked #144 for the night on cable in viewership.

These numbers are down from last week's first Thursday night episode, the go-home show for Hardcore Justice, which drew 168,000 viewers with a 0.06 rating in the key demo. Last week's show ranked #115 on the Cable Top 150 for the key demo, and #135 for the night on cable in viewership.

Despite the press conference angle with AEW's Omega and Tony Khan, Impact was down 21.4% in viewership this week, and down 33.3% in the 18-49 key demo rating. This was the second-lowest audience of the year behind the March 23 show. The 0.04 key demo rating tied with six other episodes to be the second-lowest in the demo for this year.

This week's Impact viewership was down 12.6% from the same week in 2020.

On a related note, last night's "Dark Side of the Ring: Confidential" airing on ViceTV drew 130,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the key demo. It ranked #134 for the night on the Cable Top 140, and #145 in viewership. This episode focused on WWE Hall of Famers The Road Warriors. These numbers are up from the last episode to make the Cable Top 150, which was the March 16 episode on The Montreal Screwjob. That episode drew 81,000 viewers with a 0.02 rating in the key demo.

With rounding, Dark Side of the Ring and Impact both did a 0.04 key demo rating, but Dark Side was actually ranked higher in the Cable Top 150 for the key demo, at #134, while Impact was at #138. Impact had slightly more viewers as Dark Side averaged 130,000.

The NBA game between the Lakers and the Celtics on TNT topped the night on the Cable Top 150 with a 0.39 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, drawing 1.141 million viewers. Tucker Carlson Tonight on FOX News topped the night on cable in viewership with 3.221 million viewers, ranking #5 on the Cable Top 150 with a 0.27 rating in the key demo.

Grey's Anatomy on ABC topped the night in the 18-49 demographic for network TV with a 0.93 rating. Young Sheldon on CBS topped the night on network TV in viewership with 7.463 million viewers.

Below is our 2021 Impact Wrestling Viewership Tracker, along with the full press conference video:

January 5 Episode: 148,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic
January 12 Episode: 161,000 viewers with a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic
January 19 Episode: 147,000 viewers with a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic (post-Hard To Kill episode)
January 26 Episode: 186,000 viewers with a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic
February 2 Episode: 173,000 viewers with a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic
February 9 Episode: 153,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic
February 16 Episode: 197,000 viewers with a 0.06 rating in the 18-49 demographic (post-No Surrender episode)
February 23 Episode: 170,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic
March 2 Episode: 134,000 viewers with a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic
March 9 Episode: 144,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic
March 16 Episode: 146,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic (post-Sacrifice episode)
March 23 Episode: 116,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic
March 30 Episode: 148,512 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic (final Tuesday night episode)
April 8 Episode: 168,000 viewers with a 0.06 rating in the 18-49 demographic (first Thursday night episode)
April 15 Episode: 132,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic (post-Hardcore Justice episode)
April 22 Episode:

2020 Total: 8.010 million viewers over 52 episodes
2020 Average: 154,038 viewers per episode