Back in July of 2008, I decided to keep track of my viewing time of WWE Monday Night Raw, ECW, TNA, and WWE Smackdown to see if I would be able to tell anything about the direction of the quality of the programming. This was assuming that if the quality (in my opinion) was better, I would watch more, and if the quality dropped (again based on my tastes), I would watch less.
I ended that tracking last summer. You can find the results of the that year-long experiment, including the charts, data, and a summary on the TV Viewership Stats page.
The New Method
In July of 2009, I started collecting some different data about the same wrestling programming. After a few months of dragging my feet I finally decided on how I want to show the data, so I’ve added the information to the website.
What I am measuring this time is the number of matches per hour, and the quality of those matches as judged by a simple rating system (1 Thumb Up, 2 Thumbs Up, 1 Thumb Down).
You can find out all the details on the new TV Match Ratings page. There is a new tab at the top of the main page for this.
I won’t be posting too much about it on the main page, other than the occasional reminder that it is happening, and maybe a summary every few months. Those that are interested can check out the details on the ratings page, and those that aren’t don’t have to look at it at all.
To finish out this announcement, I’m including one of the charts from that page that shows the total “Thumb” ratings for each of the four brands from 7/7/09 through 11/20/09. The idea is that the higher the number, the better the overall quality of the wrestling matches of that brand (click on the image for a larger view).
Total Thumbs Up Ratings Thru 11/20/09
As of this writing, TNA is ahead, followed by Smackdown and ECW, with Monday Night Raw trailing pretty far behind. If I remember right, the change in format where Raw has a guest host every week started sometime in July. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Good job. Lots of work. I wonder if any ratings hit the Raw people. They must get these messages from other sources. ( don’t watch the Raw program often, but when I have I feel I am seeing too much “cutsie” junk.
I think the Nielsen ratings have been up since they started the guest hosts. But that’s the number of eyeballs on it, not a measure of how much people liked it.
You could guess one from the other, but it’s like a crash on the side of the highway. A lot of people slowed down to look, but those people won’t go out of their way to drive by the next day and look at the same spot.