Early Ratings News Regarding The WWE Diva Search
July 27th, 2006 by Brian Cantor
Source: Wrestling-Observer Newsletter
Although Internet wrestling discussion unanimously condemns the WWE Diva Search, the past two installments were television ratings successes. Segments involving the women were often among the most-viewed non-main-event quarter hours of RAW.
Early ratings for this year’s competition, however, provide a better window into what fuels the Search’s popularity.
The segment on last week’s RAW, which featured the first elimination, provided a very nominal ratings increase. Even though it was paired with a Ric Flair angle, it essentially had no net effect on RAW viewership.
The Bikini Bootcamp segment on SmackDown, however, was a colossal success. The segment brought an additional 565,000 viewers to the network and actually performed significantly better than the main-event.
The geographical breakdown told the same story. It was the most popular segment in almost every major region of the country, and drew far better than the show’s average.
Although future ratings numbers may contradict these results, the clear implication from the aforementioned numbers is that viewers are primarily interested in the competition for the silly, yet sexy “challenges.” The results of the competition itself (eliminations) are not as significant a priority for viewers.
