WoS/World of Sport held their sixth episode this weekend on ITV. The ratings for the show appear to have now been released.
Here’s the reported number:
- 400k (4.8% share)
Compared to last week’s number:
- 700k (6.7% share)
There’s no way of sugar coating of it, that’s a huge drop.
We reported over the weekend that WoS would be going on a UK tour in 2019. This skews the idea that WoS would be prematurely meeting its demise with such forward planning.
The Time Change
It’s clear that the change from 5pm to 4:30pm played a huge role in the ratings drop. With the ITV Evening News changing by 30 minutes the rest of the schedule had to follow suit and this appears to have hurt WoS by around 300 thousand viewers. Again the number isn’t pretty to look at but a time change affects most programmes across many genres. This isn’t uncommon for WWE either, when special time changes occur for RAW and Smackdown this affects their numbers. TV audiences are creatures of habit, if you have prepared for a specific timeslot and this gets changed then this affects your routine.
The numbers for WoS WERE steadily increasing, last week saw a height of 900 thousand viewers and an overall rating of 700k. Again The live tour for 2019 is an excellent sign of ITV investment in the show, both monetarily and in figurative terms.
Is This The End?
This isn’t the death knell for WoS as other sites are reporting. The upcoming tour and options for ITV to move the show across their wealth of channels are numerous and extremely likely. Will pro wrestling be featured on Saturday evenings going forward? Likely not, but a more realistic slot on an ITV 2 with a good lead in like previous weeks (the Scorpion King broadcast helped the show massively) could make a huge difference.
