Jeff Jarrett recently shared that the president of Spike TV was immediately impressed with TNA’s early television ratings, specifically pointing to an unusual metric that indicated the audience was truly engaged. This success came as TNA was celebrating a new era of national television.
Speaking on his My World With Jeff Jarrett podcast, Jarrett recalled the positive feedback he received after the first few episodes of Impact! aired on Spike TV in late 2005. The show was put in a late timeslot.
Jarrett remembered the key conversation with the network president, Doug Herzog, who had previously overseen WWE’s Velocity program. Herzog was delighted that TNA was retaining and growing its audience throughout the hour-long broadcast. “I’ll never forget the phone call, a lot of them, but when you hear it from the network president, I mean the guy who ultimately decides I’m going to write these guys a check is,” Jarrett said. The crucial indicator was TNA’s minute-by-minute viewing data. Herzog told Jarrett: “The thing that I think I like most about the early numbers that are coming in, yes to great demos. But he said every quarter hour being an hour show is growing”.
The success was a shock because it defied normal viewing trends for the late timeslot. “You’re starting higher and it’s getting later, off prime at night,” Jarrett said. “He said velocity never did that for us”. Jarrett was quick to dismiss Velocity as “a cm D program,” while acknowledging the difference. The demographic numbers were also strong, with the male 25 to 34 demo being the same as the popular UFC programming which preceded Impact!.
Jarrett said that a major reason the network appreciated TNA was because the show was able to keep the audience it inherited, unlike other programming. “He said, The thing that I think I like most about the early numbers that are coming in, yes to great demos. But he said every quarter hour being an hour show is growing,” Jarrett recalled. “The later it gets off prime, the more television you know, more televisions are turning off. People just go to bed. People tune out either their nightclubs or they’re not watching TV. The later it gets at night, and our numbers were increasing on the minute by minutes, as well as obviously the quarters”.
The network ultimately realized that TNA’s content was engaging the viewers. “But most importantly is whatever they’re putting on the air. They’re digging it”.
