TNA IMPACT Wrestling may have avoided closing their doors when Anthem took over the company earlier this month, but it appears that their problems are nowhere near solved.
Show Buzz Daily has reported that TNA last week had their lowest rated first run since they were on Spike TV back in 2005, with a total of 165,000 viewers. The episode ranked at number 88 on the list of shows on cable for that night.
The percentage of viewers had gone down a staggering 51% in just one week, as the episode from the Thursday night before had a viewership of 336,000 with a ranking of 114. To make a comparison, the episode of IMPACT that ran last year the day before Thanksgiving saw 312,000 total viewers back when TNA was still running replays; the first show drawing 234,000 and the replay drawing 78,000.
TNA received a considerable amount of viewers this year with the help of Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy and their storyline where Matt had become "broken" and Jeff was no longer Jeff, but "Brother Nero". TNA had been drawing what could be considered as good ratings for their shows that The Hardys were involved in heavily, such as the episodes with special gimmick matches; The Final Deletion in which Matt and Jeff faced each other in Matt's back yard in a ring then when The Hardys squared off against Decay and fought all over Matt Hardy's estate in Delete or Decay.
TNA are looking to capitalize on that success again as they have been filming episodes at Matt's house and are set to air an entire episode of TNA IMPACT that will be dedicated to the Hardy storyline, as well as The Hardys current feud with the DCC headed by TNA stalwart James Storm.
