Impact Draws Best Viewership And Key Demo Rating In Months, NJPW On AXS Viewership Down
Thursday's taped edition of Impact Wrestling drew 182,000 viewers on AXS TV, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.
This is up 44.44% from the previous week's 126,000 viewers.
Thursday's Impact drew a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 key demographic. This is up 66.66% from the previous week's 0.03 key demo rating. The 0.05 key demo rating represents 68,000 18-49 viewers, which is up 78.95% from the 38,000 18-49 viewers that the previous week's 0.03 key demo rating represented, according to Wrestlenomics.
Thursday's Impact ranked #104 on the Cable Top 150 with the 0.05 key demo rating, up from last week's #144 ranking.
Thursday's Impact ranked #125 for the night in viewership on cable, up from the previous week's #136 ranking for the night in viewership on cable.
Thursday's Impact drew the best viewership since February 16 of last year for the post-No Surrender episode, and the best key demo rating since May 27 of last year. Thursday's Impact viewership was up 44.44% from the week before, while Thursday's key demo rating was up 66.66% from the week before.
Impact viewership for this past week was down 2.15% from the same week in 2021, while the key demo rating was even with the episode that aired the year before.
The NBA game between the Lakers and the 76ers on TNT topped the night on the Cable Top 150 with a 0.53 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, also drawing 1.640 million viewers. Tucker Carlson Tonight on FOX News topped the night on cable in viewership with 3.556 million viewers, ranking #6 on the Cable Top 150 with a 0.26 key demo rating.
Young Sheldon on CBS topped the night on network TV in the key 18-49 demographic with a 0.73 rating. Young Sheldon also topped the night in viewership for network TV with 7.729 million viewers.
Thursday's taped Impact had the following matches and segments advertised ahead of time – Knockouts World Champion Mickie James giving her State of the Knockouts Address, Madison Rayne and Kaleb vs. Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions The IInspiration in a non-title match, Jonah vs. Johnny Swinger, W. Morrissey vs. VSK, Zickey Dice and 6 enhancement talents in an 8-on-1 Handicap Match, and appearances by The Bullet Club's Jay White and Guerrillas of Destiny. The main event ended up being Honor No More's PCO vs. Chris Sabin.
AXS aired another one-hour re-run of NJPW this past Thursday after Impact, which they will do until new episodes begin airing in March. Thursday's episode featured the 2018 WrestleKingdom 12 match between then-IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito. The episode drew 66,000 viewers, which is down 25% from the 88,000 viewers that last week's NJPW return to AXS drew, for the WK12 match between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega. This week's 0.01 key demo rating was down 66.66% from last week's 0.03 rating. This week's NJPW re-run on AXS drew 15,000 18-49 viewers, which was down 59.45% from the 37,000 18-49 viewers that last week's re-run episode drew.
Below is our updated 2022 Impact Wrestling Viewership Tracker:
January 6 Episode: 104,000 viewers with a 0.02 rating in the 18-49 demographic
January 13 Episode: 111,000 viewers with a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic (Post-Hard To Kill episode)
January 20 Episode: 126,000 viewers with a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic
January 27 Episode: 182,000 viewers with a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic
February 3 Episode:
2021 Viewership Average: 120,837 viewers per episode
2021 Key Demo Rating Average: 0.03 18-49 key demo rating per episode
2020 Average: 154,038 viewers per episode