WWE News: USA Network Down On Pro-Wrestling And ‘WWE Tough Enough’
WWE has gone down in ratings over the years. It is no longer the Attitude Era, and we are not at the peak of wrestling popularity. That does not mean pro-wrestling is dead. In fact, it is massively popular even still. Don’t tell this to USA Network, however, as they are not really happy with WWE and pro-wrestling as a whole right now. In fact, USA is not happy with the ratings WWE has been bringing in, and have automatically started to fear the worst.
According to the Wrestling Observer, USA Network believes that pro-wrestling is cycling downward instead of upward. They feel that the ratings for WWE RAW and WWE Tough Enough are not high enough. However, WWE has gone up against a lot the last few weeks, from the FIFA Women’s World Cup to the NBA and NHL Playoffs that were direct competition at some points the last few months.
USA, of course, changed how WWE Tough Enough was done, which many fans have liked. However, it has also been a problem. USA isn’t a fan of how they formatted the show. It is partially taped, while also being live for both the judgement and home voting. They feel that the judges do not have enough time to make fair decisions, and that the fans only have minute instead of a whole day or whole week to vote for their favorites.
This hurts DVR material, because you have to see the show live in order to vote. If one had a week to vote or another day, fans would have more time to invest in the product. USA feels the current format is a turn off to fans, and has caused poor “word of mouth” buzz.
USA Network officials were very happy with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin when he was the host of Tough Enough a number of years ago. It is thought that his charisma and presence led to ratings for the show. Meanwhile, USA sees Chris Jericho as more of a game show host. There is no anger directed toward Jericho, nor do they blame him for the lower ratings. The issue USA has is that it feels more like a game show than a reality TV competition.
USA is also concerned with how the last two Tough Enough winners turned out in Daniel Puder and Andy Levine. Both were released before ever really doing anything in WWE. This has led to some speculation that Tough Enough‘s winners aren’t really amounting to much, which may turn people off from the show, as well. Of course, the original idea for Tough Enough was for the winner to get a WWE contract and become a star with the WWE one day. Now, there is a feeling that winning the show means nothing, which could be why fans do not care and why ratings are lower.
Interestingly, WWE Tough Enough had its highest ratings yet during this season, just this past week. Around 200,000 more people tuned in that did the previous week. So, the show could be going up. WWE RAW has stayed with a strong 3.0 rating average this year, but has dipped lately. It is thought that ratings will improve, but they were a bit lower in previous weeks due to competition.
One has to wonder how they will be able to cope when ESPN’s Monday Night Football comes back, as WWE never seems to have enough to beat the ratings for football each year.
[IMG Credits: What Culture, adweek.com]
