elryc
Samurai Cop
Team ANYONE But Johnny
Posts: 2,478
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Post by elryc on Oct 23, 2012 22:34:45 GMT -5
What do you mean by "only three of those twelve years did it work"? Yeah it peaked early on when wrestling was it's hottest, but ratings were generally high 3's to mid 4's until the summer of 2007. It's been low 3's since then and declining a tenth of a point in increments since then. They took a declining product and added another hour to it and we've been dwelling around 3 and now lower. www.thewrestlingcafe.com/index.php/hot-divas/9-uncategorised/87-wwe-and-tna-tv-ratings-historyWell historically when you look at mainstream wrestling interest, post 2001 era is hardly a peak. Yes that's because there are fewer TV shows around now, but when you're the only game in town you surely should at least soak up other fans of the genre. WWE has failed to do that. And the PPV buyrates have been appalling. It's constantly flogging a dead horse in the hope suddenly it'll be the late 90s again. 'Shock' TV comes and goes and has peaks and valleys in popularity. Family-targeted television - doesn't. It's proven to work. Yet the problem is WWE wants to be 'family friendly' whilst still wearing TV-14 clothes. It's neither one thing or the other. The older generation feel alienated and the younger generation aren't afforded the opportunity to connect. This has nothing to do with shock TV or TV PG or anything else. It has everything to do with the fact that not a damn thing that happens matters. They have the IC, US, Divas, and Tag Team belts. A match for any one of those should be able to main event the show, or a match for the #1 contendership for the WWE or World title. But they've devalued the hell out of their belts and their midcard, and now they're stuck putting only PPV main eventers in the Raw/SD main events, and half the time it has to be a talky-talk segment because they've long ago run out of matches they could set up between them. So the product has gotten stale and is just spinning its wheels waiting for the next Brock/Rock/Austin(?)/HHH/Vince return to spike ratings for a few weeks because at least its something different. But its all crap and will continue to be crap until they build a roster with more than 4 credible people. (Yes, 4 is hyperbole. Roll with it.)
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Post by celticjobber on Oct 23, 2012 23:33:59 GMT -5
They need to face facts the product as it's constructed now isn't appealing to the market like it used to. They get ratings bumps when they bring in guys from an era that was hot. The product right now is designed for 12 year olds and they occasionally throw a bone to the leftover 18+ crowd but the main product just isnt designed for them anymore. They've limited their audience and brought us back to 1992 WWF.Oddly enough, even though they're targeting the pre-teen audience -- the average WWE viewer is something like 38 years old now, older than ever before. They actually had more young viewers during the Attitude era.
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Post by 01010010 01101001 01100011 on Oct 23, 2012 23:43:55 GMT -5
They need to face facts the product as it's constructed now isn't appealing to the market like it used to. They get ratings bumps when they bring in guys from an era that was hot. The product right now is designed for 12 year olds and they occasionally throw a bone to the leftover 18+ crowd but the main product just isnt designed for them anymore. They've limited their audience and brought us back to 1992 WWF.Oddly enough, even though they're targeting the pre-teen audience -- the average WWE viewer is something like 38 years old now, older than ever before. They actually had more young viewers during the Attitude era. It's the genius part of their strategy, IMO. For every 2 kids they get, they'll get at least one parent most likely. Throw in fans that have been watching since the Attitude Era or prior that are still around and it's going to skew older.
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gl83
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 5,049
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Post by gl83 on Oct 25, 2012 9:19:36 GMT -5
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Post by EoE: Well There's Your Problem on Oct 25, 2012 9:33:45 GMT -5
As is usually the case with these things... the thing people here hated most was the most popular, while the most popular thing here was one of the lowest of the night.
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kidglov3s
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wants her Shot
Who is Tiger Maskooo?
Posts: 15,870
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Post by kidglov3s on Oct 25, 2012 9:48:28 GMT -5
"2.15 quarter"
ouch, lol
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Post by adam3s on Oct 25, 2012 10:05:45 GMT -5
Shame to be honest. Whilst the show moves a little too slowly and doesn't have enough action for what is a 3 hour show. I still feel like the current storylines are solid and the characters interesting.
Also to the people saying that a quick fix shouldn't be considered and instead just slowly improving the storylines and week in/week out quality of the show...I kinda disagree with ya. Okay, yeah I would like the show to improve also but I think one of the problems plaguing the current product is the look. Whilst I like the new RAW graphics the general feel of the show has been the same since about '03.
New lightning, new layout and just a general revamp on how the show in represented would be nice. Pre-match and Post-match interviews. Statistics, Rankings, Tournaments, Weight Classes and if you are going to keep the brand make it exclusive, equal and have a transfer season.
Just add more sport presentation to Sports Entertainment. Or some else, just try something...different.
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kidglov3s
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wants her Shot
Who is Tiger Maskooo?
Posts: 15,870
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Post by kidglov3s on Oct 25, 2012 10:08:25 GMT -5
Shame to be honest. Whilst the show moves a little too slowly and doesn't have enough action for what is a 3 hour show. I still feel like the current storylines are solid and the characters interesting. Also to the people saying that a quick fix shouldn't be considered and instead just slowly improving the storylines and week in/week out quality of the show...I kinda disagree with ya. Okay, yeah I would like the show to improve also but I think one of the problems plaguing the current product is the look. Whilst I like the new RAW graphics the general feel of the show has been the same since about '03. New lightning, new layout and just a general revamp on how the show in represented would be nice. Pre-match and Post-match interviews. Statistics, Rankings, Tournaments, Weight Classes and if you are going to keep the brand make it exclusive, equal and have a transfer season. Just add more sport presentation to Sports Entertainment. Or some else, just try something...different. Raw in the style of WWE Main Event would be interesting, and I think more enjoyable. Also, they could do 2hrs of Raw, and then 1hr of having the wrestlers be gladiators like American Gladiators, with 2 fans competing to score more points. Bring back Mike Adamle. Get Zap.
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Welfare Willis
Crow T. Robot
Pornomancer 555-BONE FDIC Bonsured
Game Center CX Kacho on!
Posts: 44,259
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Post by Welfare Willis on Oct 25, 2012 10:11:37 GMT -5
Well historically when you look at mainstream wrestling interest, post 2001 era is hardly a peak. Yes that's because there are fewer TV shows around now, but when you're the only game in town you surely should at least soak up other fans of the genre. WWE has failed to do that. And the PPV buyrates have been appalling. It's constantly flogging a dead horse in the hope suddenly it'll be the late 90s again. 'Shock' TV comes and goes and has peaks and valleys in popularity. Family-targeted television - doesn't. It's proven to work. Yet the problem is WWE wants to be 'family friendly' whilst still wearing TV-14 clothes. It's neither one thing or the other. The older generation feel alienated and the younger generation aren't afforded the opportunity to connect. This has nothing to do with shock TV or TV PG or anything else. It has everything to do with the fact that not a damn thing that happens matters. They have the IC, US, Divas, and Tag Team belts. A match for any one of those should be able to main event the show, or a match for the #1 contendership for the WWE or World title. But they've devalued the hell out of their belts and their midcard, and now they're stuck putting only PPV main eventers in the Raw/SD main events, and half the time it has to be a talky-talk segment because they've long ago run out of matches they could set up between them. So the product has gotten stale and is just spinning its wheels waiting for the next Brock/Rock/Austin(?)/HHH/Vince return to spike ratings for a few weeks because at least its something different. But its all crap and will continue to be crap until they build a roster with more than 4 credible people. (Yes, 4 is hyperbole. Roll with it.) I tend to subscribe to this theory. Maybe it's because they have so many hours to fill or that they try to hire writers who never seen a wrestling product before. Hell it could be something as simple as not having competition like WCW to take more risks with the product. One of the reasons I prefer TNA right now is there product could be terrible, but at least it's interesting.
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kevin
El Dandy
Posts: 7,510
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Post by kevin on Oct 25, 2012 12:02:58 GMT -5
I have to say this complaining about low ratings strikes me as completely absurd given that Raw was the sixth most watched cable shows for the night and that is what matters. What happen 15 years ago 10 years ago even 1 year ago does not matter towards if the ratings are good or not. What matters is ratings compered to other shows in its time slot and ratings overall for its network. In its time slot on Monday Raw is always near the top for overall viewers and viewers in the key 18-49 demand last week its hours were the 17,19 , and 22 most watched hours on cable and was the highest rated show on USA.
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kidglov3s
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wants her Shot
Who is Tiger Maskooo?
Posts: 15,870
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Post by kidglov3s on Oct 25, 2012 12:04:35 GMT -5
Low ratings is honestly the best thing for everyone. Other than Raw's audience becoming exclusively old single women 60+ it's the best chance of getting USA to go back to 2hrs.
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King Ghidorah
El Dandy
On Probation for Charges of two counts of Saxual Music.
How Absurd
Posts: 8,330
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Post by King Ghidorah on Oct 25, 2012 12:19:02 GMT -5
Low ratings is honestly the best thing for everyone. Other than Raw's audience becoming exclusively old single women 60+ it's the best chance of getting USA to go back to 2hrs. 3 million viewers in 1 hour is likely 50x better than anything USA can put there, 3 hours is gonna stick around for a bit.
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kidglov3s
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wants her Shot
Who is Tiger Maskooo?
Posts: 15,870
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Post by kidglov3s on Oct 25, 2012 12:20:42 GMT -5
Low ratings is honestly the best thing for everyone. Other than Raw's audience becoming exclusively old single women 60+ it's the best chance of getting USA to go back to 2hrs. 3 million viewers in 1 hour is likely 50x better than anything USA can put there, 3 hours is gonna stick around for a bit. Gotta hope they keep going down. Alls we can do to get reasonable 2hr shows back.
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King Ghidorah
El Dandy
On Probation for Charges of two counts of Saxual Music.
How Absurd
Posts: 8,330
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Post by King Ghidorah on Oct 25, 2012 12:31:46 GMT -5
Yea, 3 hour raws are exhausting, but it makes for good raw threads.
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Post by xCompackx on Oct 25, 2012 13:59:28 GMT -5
It's odd, I didn't really buy into the whole "People are getting exhausted by 3 hour Raws" until I actually watched this week's episode. I haven't seen a 3 hour episode since 1001 and that wasn't bad but this... Yeah, I almost fell asleep before the end of the 2nd hour.
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Post by corndog on Oct 25, 2012 14:22:41 GMT -5
The audiences really don't mesh. The football game and the baseball game are the real-backbreakers. Luckily for WWE, they both sucked ass, it probably would have been worse. Yeah, it makes sense that the 9-10 p.m. hour would gain viewers in the context of the competition they faced. Game Seven of the NLCS became a runaway when San Francisco went up 6-0 in the third inning and that happened between 9 and 9:30 and that was about the same time people were (presumably) starting to realize that the Bears vs. Lions Monday Night game was turning out to be a relatively bad game. However, the 10-11 p.m. hour is absolutely crippling them. Earlier in the thread, someone said that only the most hardcore of fans are sticking around for that hour and it's true. Three hours of wrestling in a single sitting is okay for a pay-per-view or a grandiose special event, but to try to produce three hours of interesting, captivating live content is asking a lot of a creative team that was struggling when they only had 120 minutes to fill. People are getting worn out watching those three hours. I think they may have no choice but to go back to two hours sometime in the future. It won't be immediately, because it still has time to bounce back, but I would venture to guess it'll be sometime following WrestleMania season. I think there's more than enough evidence over the past three months to concede that the third hour has been a relative failure. While I agree with the NLCS, debate, and MNF game points, this is a good point as well. Three hours is just too much to maintain people's attention, especially in a time of even shorter attention spans.
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Post by joebob27 on Oct 25, 2012 14:44:30 GMT -5
So.... without the main event, what the hell would the ratings have been for the 3rd hour?
Going into that match, the show was down 451000 viewers from the *OPEN*. LOL.
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Post by thegame415 on Oct 25, 2012 16:05:25 GMT -5
I like how everyone has failed to mention the huge number for the AJ/Heyman/Vince/Vickie segment that everyone crapped on.
Here's my take: Raw being three hours isn't bad. Nitro drew ratings in the upper 4's and low to mid 5's with three hour shows. It's the formatting of WWE programming. There's too much, and people know they don't have to watch immediately. They don't do anything on the shows that make it desirable to watch at that time. There needs to be some changes done to the formatting of WWE in order to improved the show, and I don't mean TV-14 Attitude. It's just an overkill, with 10 hours of original programming next week.
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Post by memphis25 on Oct 25, 2012 20:40:53 GMT -5
AJ removed from power and then the rating tanks.
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Dean-o
Grimlock
Haha we're having fun Maggle!
Posts: 13,865
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Post by Dean-o on Oct 26, 2012 0:08:42 GMT -5
You know, I loved when they announced Raw was going to be 3 hours. Monday's at work are always very stressful and I looked forward to Raw every week, when I could relax and just enjoy some wrestling.
Even I am suffering burnout. Some nights i'm fighting sleep because it's just so much, and the commercial breaks don't help matters any.
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