Ray's UK Rating's Report: Week Ending July 24th 2011

The Broadcaster's Audience Research Board (BARB) have released the UK TV ratings for the week ending July 24th 2011. And the figures should certainly please everyone associated with IMPACT Wrestling as it's flagship show on Challenge TV set yet another UK viewership record, garnering 282,000 viewers for the Tuesday July 19th episode headlined by Sting's World Heavyweight Title win over Mr. Anderson.

This is a viewership increase of 71,000 viewers (33.7%) from last week alone, a truly staggering figure! This means the episode was the most watched TNA/IMPACT Wrestling program ever broadcast in the UK, beating the previous record high of 244,000 set by the Tuesday 3rd May episode. Interestingly, this show was also headlined by Sting and Mr. Anderson (in a three way bout against Bully Ray), looks like IMPACT Wrestling have made a smart move in having the Stinger headline their upcoming UK Maximum Impact Tour!

Strangely there are no viewership figures provided by BARB for any of the Sky Sports channels this week so I'm unable to draw comparisons with WWE's RAW and Smackdown this week, but it's pretty safe to say that IMPACT Wrestling won the week. Here's how the total's look for the year to date since IMPACT's debut on Challenge:

Weekly Ratings Wins so far (2011)*:
IMPACT Wrestling – 20
WWE RAW – 2
WWE Smackdown – 2

*Based on first showing viewing figures, not inclusive of +1 or replay figures.