Agree/Disagree, TV Ratings today should be look at completely different from 10+ years ago?

TV ratings should not make any difference at all to the fans. If you like the show, watch it. If you don't, watch something else. Ratings are something VINCE has to worry about, and adjust his product when they fall, not something that matters to US.

What I find hypocritical of WWE fans are their views on ratings. They laugh and sneer at other promotions (especially TNA) about their ratings not being on par with the WWE and use that to "prove" that the WWE is "better". Yet when WWE TV ratings fall those same fans will try to list a million grasping-at-straws reasons why things "are not as bad as they seem" and they try to qualify why WWE ratings are down ("they're down NOW because...*insert grasping-at-straws reason here*) as though the WWE is counted differently from every other TV show, and problems they have don't affect the quality of their shows, and thus the amounts of people who watch them.

The ratings are counted by, and "calculated" by, the Nielsen Ratings company through their little "boxes" connected to a small portion of homes throughout the country. Programs recorded on Tivos, DVRs, VCRs, and other recording devices count the same as those that go straight to TVs without passing through recording devices. As far as Nielsen is concerned a program is counted as "watched" whether you watched it when it aired or recorded it to watch later, all that matters is that your antenna or cable/satellite receiver tuned in to that program (and they do count "segments" of a program in their calculations, i.e. the first hour of a program got a 6.4 rating, the second hour only got a 5.7 because some homes changed the channel, with the final 15 minutes falling to 4.4 because even more homes changed the channel). "Everybody" has a TV recording device these days and Nielsen factors that into their calculations.

The WWE's ratings have fallen since the Attitude Era simply because they have less and less viewers as time passes. Why that is, is a subject for another discussion, but the bottom line is TV ratings do NOT equal "quality", only what Nielsen calculates is the number of homes that tuned in to a particular program. The falling WWE ratings can't be blamed on DVRs, Tivos, or VCRs because Nielsen factors them into their calculations.

WQ: Disagree. Triple H may be the boss at the moment but he'll be back in the ring sometime or other. Pro wrestlers never truly retire from the ring.

EDIT: Reading the answers above is something of an eye-opener. I'm actually very surprised that today's young people believe recording TV programs for later viewing was only made possible by the invention of the DVR/Tivo. Nothing could be further from the truth. VCR made that possible and VCR has been available since the 1970's. Prior to the invention of DVR, VCR's were in just about every home and we used them just like people today use their DVR's, to record TV shows for later viewing (and to watch VHS tapes of movies, like we do DVD today). During the Monday Night War both WCW and the WWF were able to pull in those amazing ratings because the fans, who didn't just switch back and forth between shows, would record one show while they were watching the other; meaning, to Nielsen, those particular homes watched both programs at the same time.

You are exactly right. Also, 10 years ago if you wanted to watch a PPV you had to actually pay for it and now the majority of fans illegally stream them over the internet so, in reality there are a lot more people watching than what is counted in the buy rates. Also, the Syndicated Cable Assoc. recently released a report saying that the ratings are actually tabulated differently now so that the rating appears to be lower but actually is not. Example: 10 yrs ago you may have only had 4 shows competing in the same time slot where today you might have 8 shows competing for the viewers in the same time slot so a "share" of the ratings is going to look higher when divided by 4 rather than 8.

I'm from England so I don't understand the 4.5 rating but if it's done in relation to viewers for other TV Shows then you have to take into account that they will also (a lot of them at least) have things like youtube reducing their viewers. If anything, the effect could be the opposite because whereas with a lot of its competitors it will make no difference watching on youtube (a lot will be repeats), with Raw it's live and it'll have a lot of people wanting to watch it live because it just seems better that way.

Either way, far too much has changed for them to be directly compared and say "yes it was more popular back then", you're definitely right there.

If you think about how the WWE themselves look at TV ratings then you're definitely right that they're looked at differently, remember that with the direction the company has been taking since 07, there are a lot more sales of toys etc, I think that if WWE went TV-14 again and lost the deal with Mattel they would get more viewers but less money, so ratings are now not as important as they once were anyway.

Edit: forgot the WQ. I think he will have one more match because I can't see him retiring without everybody knowing that his last match was his last match before it happened, it could end up being career vs streak at WM 28 against the undertaker as he said he's waiting for him but got I hope not, hopefully he'll have a match at Summerslam or Survivor Series where everybody knows it's his last ever match. If he doesn't face Taker at Wrestlemania then I don't know, maybe Rock vs Cena wont be for the WWE title and he'll be in the title match to retire (from in-ring competition) the champ like Edge did.

Or of course he could be injured or may have just decided to stop wrestling, I simply don't know but I'm about 80% sure that he'll have at least one more match. After that, yeah, I think he's done (one more fued at the most, which could even be against Punk, who knows)

@The Dragon, a LOT of people watch WWE shows on youtube, those views don't count in the ratings. Also, you seem to have misplaced a rant at those WWE fans who claim that ratings make TNA worse than WWE, the fact is quality and ratings, whilst there isn't perfect correlation, DO have a correlation, you cannot deny that (although I certainly am not saying that WWE is better than TNA just because it has more viewers, more that when a show loses viewers it can often be put down to a drop in quality, and the opposite being true when ratings rise) So the asker has a legitimate reason for taking notice of the ratings IMO

I disagree. The people just got bored. Ratings drop around 2003 or 2004. YouTube wasn't launched until 2005 and it gained popularity in 2006.

http://100megsfree4.com/wiawrestling/pages/wwf/wwf...

Also, I agree with The Dragon. Rating, ticket sales, PPV buyrates, and all that other sh*t shouldn't matter for the fans. Only Vince should worry about it. Seriously it's retarded that people ask questions about the buyrates. What matters, how fun is the show or it's ratings and buyrates?

Yup. I completely agree with you. You see, WWE Raw back then in 1997 to 2000 was absolutely fantastic. Because that time WWF/WWE attitude era have a great storylines, high profile wrestlers, and also that time got incredible fans who chanting and cheering their favorite wrestler in the arena with a loud ovation. Compare to WWE now where it become lesser and lesser popularity. Anyway, I currently still watch WWE nowadays because of some few great wrestlers that I like. Speaking of great wrestlers, I really don't know where is Triple H now. But I know he not done with WWE yet. I think he just taking a break and take care of his family. Especially his children. That's what I think. And I know he's going to come back to WWE. It just that I don't know when is that.

I agree 100%. Back then you could only really watch it live you couldn't watch it on Youtube or Record it or anything. So it pretty much forces you to watch it. Also people use Streams today for watching RAW and it doesn't count at all. It wouldn't be a bad idea for WWE to put RAW live on youtube and if people watch it they should add it to the ratings. Maybe if WWE somehow got rid of all streams for there programing that really forces people to buy the Pay Per View if they want to know what happened on that day. A lot of people don't get it the current day technology is really hurting the WWE they need to step up with this try to get rid of streams and maybe add DVRs to the ratings or something.

WQ: I think he isn't one hundred percent done. I think he will have at least 3 more matches then focus on being the new TV CEO and have a say backstage a little more.

Quite frankly I'm surprised it's doing that well. Definitely must be the newer generation watching. Back in the day it had a much stronger writing team and got rating based off of shock value. You were usually on the edge of your seat not knowing what would happen next and at the end of the show you couldn't wait for the next one.

These days it's dull, predictable, and thanks to it's piggbacking off of it's old stars for so long it is nearly starless.

With all of this new media it should be boosting their t.v. ratings and it should be helping them gain more viewers not lose them.

Agree, Back then not only were there more veiwers but more seats filled at shows because back then we had so many characters making the show fantastic and the show was never over we would get to see like Stone Cold doing what the average maerican could nto do and thats kick the bosses a$$ and that made him an instant fan favorite and the invasion wars happening and unexpected thigns and most importantly know one knew wrestling was scripted which made it feel the whole more funand entertaining to veiw andt he storylines were phenomenal

For instance Kane, Undertakers Kayfabe brother being alive and returning was an amazing storyline and felt like a tense soap opera which was amazing and when people saw him you could seet he fear in there eyes of his huge stature which made WWE a Must see show and for 15 years dominated the rating outrating Superbowl,Playoff,Even at one point outveiwed teh world cup by 16,000 veiwers because of the athletiscm the blood and the entertainment and that kind of Era will definetly not happe nagain it was a one time thing and Im glad to have lived through WWF attitude

Agree, His time as a wrestler iso ver but he is not gone from WWE television he still plays a major role in finding new talent infact he was the one who wanted Sin Cara and Kharma Signed to a contract but when he said "Next Year Undertake i'll be ready" Told me that maybe we might see one more match? which can give us some signals but throughout the year he is done and when he returned i was hoping to see him and Sheamus finish of the feud but thats over but as of right now he is not goign to wresle again

I think they know whats DVR'd most are from your cable or satellite provider ,I dont know anyone with a dvr that watcher live tv,easier and faster to record and fast forward thru the commercials,,,,,,,but there is the enticement of watching Raw live,,,,,,,,,I am sure they can ping your box to see whats going on

Well in my opinion I agree. There is a difference. But I disagree with your reasoning. I think that the 3.2-3.5 rating is mostly kids. The WWE lost most of it's adult audience if not all.Also 2005-2008 people could use youtube but it was always better to see it on t.v or at a live event. I think that if WWE tried to go back to t.v 14 it might be to late because they already lost major superstars, their creative team is horrible , they release and misuse their superstars,hire their divas based on looks, and their matches suck.

I think they ruined themselves. The next dvd may be the rise and fall of the WWE.

But I could be wrong.