Hulk Hogan steps back into the ring on TNA iMPACT!
Monday, March 8 Live on Spike TV
WRESTLING LEGEND AND POP CULTURE ICON WILL FACE RIC FLAIR ON LIVE NETWORK TELEVISION FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ALMOST A DECADE
Legendary pop culture icon Hulk Hogan will face his longtime nemesis Ric Flair for the first time in almost a decade on network television. The match will air live on “TNA iMPACT!” on Spike TV Monday, March 8 (9:00-11:00pm ET/PT).
The highly-anticipated bout will feature Hogan teaming with TNA Superstar Abyss to battle Flair and his protege,TNA World Heavyweight Champion “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles, in a special tag-team match.
“Since I partnered with Dixie Carter and debuted on January 4, we have taken TNA to amazing new levels,” said Hogan. “I’ve got a score to settle with Ric Flair, and there’s no better time to do it than Monday night, March 8, when we change the wrestling world forever.”
Hogan’s return to the ring will headline the official move of “TNA iMPACT!” to Monday nights, after being televised for nearly four years on Thursday nights. Spike TV’s highly-rated, two-hour weekly series will be live every other week and emanate from the “TNA iMPACT! Zone” at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.
“This is a new beginning for TNA,” Carter said. “We’ve worked hard to get here, and I’m confident that if people tune in to TNA for the first time on March 8, they won’t be disappointed.”
The first-ever Monday live “TNA iMPACT!” three-hour special broadcast ran on Spike TV head-to-head against WWE RAW on Monday, January 4, 2010, and drew a franchise-record 2.2 million viewers and set ratings records in every demographic. Two wrestling companies have not broadcast head-to-head weekly since the “Monday Night Wars” in the late 1990s between WWE and WCW.
“TNA iMPACT!” features many of the biggest names in wrestling including Hogan, Flair, Mick Foley, Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash and Team 3D, as well as the hottest young talent in the industry: Styles, “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero and “The Blueprint” Matt Morgan.
Since its founding in 2002, Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling has become the world’s fastest-growing professional wrestling company, currently airing in over 120 countries worldwide.
Source: Spike TV
5.3 million viewers tune in to see Kimbo Slice-Roy Nelson fight on The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights on Spike TV
Easily Beats The Competition On Broadcast And Cable, Drawing Both Young Men And Women
Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” is the undisputed ratings champ on Wednesday nights. The most recent episode of the tenth season of “The Ultimate Fighter” drew 5.3 million viewers, peaking at a staggering 6.1 million viewers on Wednesday, September 30 (10:00pm-11:00pm ET/PT). Featuring a fight between contestants Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson, the telecast ranks as the most-watched episode of an original series in the six-year history of the channel* and the most-watched program of any kind in Men 18-34 and Men 18-49.
“The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” was clearly the top-rated program on television on Wednesday with men in all key demographics including Men 18-34, M18-49, M18-24, and M25-34. It also was the most watched program among Persons 18-34 with a 4.7 rating (2.7 million), illustrating co-viewing among young men and women.
The episode also drew more Men 18-34 than anything else on television this week thus far, except Monday Night Football on ESPN. Also of note, only seven series in all of television this fall season drew more men 18-34, despite “The Ultimate Fighter” being in its tenth season.
Overall, the record-breaking telecast drew a 6.9 in Men 18-34 (2 million), a 5.4 in M18-49 (3.1 million), a household rating of 3.7 and 5.3 million total viewers.
The 6.1 million viewership peak at 9:45pm for the Kimbo Slice- Roy Nelson fight trumps any UFC programming ever on Spike TV. The previous mark was 5.9 million viewers for Rampage Jackson-Dan Henderson fight at UFC 75 in September, 2007. Also, the repeat at 11:00pm drew an impressive 1.5 million viewers. Thus, the combined audience of both telecasts reached 6.8 million viewers.
“The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” features former UFC light heavyweight champions “Suga” Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as coaches and is the only installment in the show’s history to include only the heavyweight weight class (206+ lbs). The cast includes a list of notable athletes with impressive and diverse pedigrees including four former NFL players, UFC veterans, a former IFL heavyweight champ and a highly-publicized former EliteXC fighter, Kimbo Slice, who gained prominence through his non-sanctioned bouts on YouTube.
*the previous record was 4.1 million viewers for the premiere of “The Ultimate Fighters: Heavyweights” was set September 16, 2009.
Source: Spike TV