WWE News: TV Ratings Breakdown for Raw, SmackDown and Impact in 2011

TV ratings are the driving force behind any successful professional wrestling company (well, at least the ones that are actually on TV). 

You don’t deliver high ratings, then your company suffers big time—it’s really that simple. 

So, how did TNA and WWE’s major shows—Impact, Raw and SmackDown—perform in the ratings department in 2011? 

Let’s take a look. 

From PWTorch.com: 

"

WWE Raw Ratings Last Five Years

2007 - 3.63 rating

2008 - 3.28 rating

2009 - 3.59 rating

2010 - 3.28 rating

2011 - 3.21 rating

TNA Impact Ratings Last Five Years

2007 - 1.05 rating (expanded to two hours late 2007)

2008 - 1.06 rating

2009 - 1.15 rating

2010 - 1.06 rating / 1.11 rating Thursdays

2011 - 1.17 rating

WWE Smackdown on Syfy

2010 - 1.72 rating (Oct-Dec - 13 weeks)

2011 - 1.92 rating

"

What exactly do these ratings prove? Well, above all else, they show that the number of viewers fluctuates with the times, and that they do so for a variety of reasons. 

But the breakdown above also shows a rather disturbing trend for Monday Night Raw: A somewhat steady and very noticeable decline in ratings. 

Other than 2009—a year in which the ratings went up considerably for some reason I’m really not sure of—Raw has seen its number of viewers drop pretty dramatically since 2007. 

Obviously, that’s not good. 

Fewer Raw viewers means fewer top-tier advertisers, which, in turn, means a potential problem between the WWE and the USA Network. Though Raw and USA recently signed a contract that will keep them together until 2014, that’s only two years away now, and there’s no guarantee that Raw will stay on USA if ratings continue to plummet. 

Overall, Raw is still doing solid TV ratings, and I’m not sure I could picture USA Network officials just letting the show go. But the Raw ratings can’t hover around 3.0 like they have been if the WWE wants to avoid Raw getting axed come 2014.

On the other side of the equation, SyFy officials have to be more than pleased with how SmackDown has performed on the network. SmackDown is stuck in a crappy Friday timeslot, but it still attracts a decent amount of viewers, and ratings have gone up considerably since the show moved to Syfy in late 2010. 

Heck, even TNA has to be happy with its considerable increase in TV ratings in 2011. At least something’s gone well for that company. 

Raw needs to do something to join SmackDown and Impact on the ratings climb, and that something is actually a number of things, including better wring and fewer pointless backstage segments.