Impact Wrestling viewership drops 32 percent this week

After posting their lowest ratings of 2018 last week, Impact Wrestling viewership dropped 32 percent for Thursday night’s episode.

Impact averaged 168,000 viewers on Pop TV last night, down from the previous week’s 248,000. That’s the third lowest number for a new episode since Impact debuted on Pop TV. The promotion did 161,000 viewers when going up against WWE’s Tribute to the Troops last December and 165,000 on Thanksgiving night in 2016.

The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.04, down from a 0.05 last Thursday.

This week’s Impact had Austin Aries defending his World Championship against Eddie Edwards in the main event. Impact faced competition from a slate of NFL preseason games, but the show was also down over 100,000 viewers from this time last year. The August 10, 2017 episode drew 277,000 viewers.

LAX vs. The OGz in a street fight, Sami Callihan vs. Fenix, Johnny Impact vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Knockouts Champion Su Yung vs. Allie in a non-title match, Eli Drake vs. Joe Hendry, and the debut of a segment called “The Smokeshow” with Scarlett Bordeaux are advertised to air next week.

Here’s a look at Impact viewership over the last 10 weeks:

• June 7 — 296,000
• June 14 — 276,000
• June 21 — 262,000
• June 28 — 254,000
• July 5 — 304,000
• July 12 — 284,000
• July 19 –275,000 (Slammiversary XVI go-home show)
• July 26 — 299,000
• August 2 — 248,000
• August 9 — 168,000