Posted on 06/27/2002 12:25:53 PM PDT by GeneD
Is World Wrestling Entertainment down for the count?
Long viewed as the best (if not most tasteful) way to reach teenage boys, the league has begun to suffer serious ratings erosion of its marquee shows.
Vince McMahon and company have attempted to stem the slide by rolling out a new trio of cable shows whose appeal is limited mainly to wrestling's hardcore faithful.
But such measures, or even better conceived ones, may not do much more than slow the WWE's descent, with wrestling's popularity entering one of its cyclical downturns in the view of some analysts.
The slip in ratings has been especially prominent among males 12-17, wrestling’s core audience and the prized demographic that the WWE (or WWF, as it was known until losing the name to the World Wildlife Fund) once held in a headlock.
In the first half of this year, UPN’s “Smackdown” is off 35 percent among males 12-17 as compared to last year.
The two-hour showcase, which airs on Thursdays at 8 p.m., has tumbled 10 percent in households.
TNN’s “Raw Is War” has similarly taken a plunge, down 19 percent in males 12-17 from last year and down 6 percent in households.
With an average household rating around 5.2, that’s still good enough for “Raw” to occupy half of the top 10 household rankings for the year to date in cable, but the trend remains.
The WWE badly needs a new infusion of star power, says Stacey Lynn Koerner, vice president of broadcast research for Initiative Media.
“Many of their most popular characters moved on to other media spheres, like the Rock and Steve Austin,” says Koerner. “They need to be developing characters of that ilk, because they don’t have any that are that big right now.”
The WWE has turned to three spinoff shows in an effort to grow talent and expand the colorful universe of pro wrestling. “WWE Tough Enough,” a reality show in which the winner of the competition gets to wrestle in the WWE ring, is set to have a third installment on MTV this fall.
“WWE Velocity” and “WWE Confidential,” which air on TNN from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Saturday nights, offer more venues for new heroes and heels to hone their craft.
In an effort to capitalize on its two flagship shows, the WWE also plans to launch monthly pay-per-view matchups between wrestlers from “Smackdown” and “Raw.”
Brad Adgate, the senior vice president and director of research at Horizon Media, says that the spinoffs won’t do much to build back ratings for the primary wrestling properties.
“Only a hardcore wrestling fan would watch those shows, not the occasional fan who might watch wrestling on UPN or TNN,” says Adgate.
Much of the problem has to do with the increased competition and selective viewing habits of the male 12-17 demographic.
“They tend to be early adapters to new technology products, from downloading music and video on the internet to a huge push in video games,” says Adgate.
As far as competitive programming, “MTV remains very popular, as does BET,” says Adgate.
How likely is it that wrestling, which over the past few years has seen a tremendous upswing in popularity, is a cyclical phenomenon, bound to become a fad every dozen years or so?
“There are a lot of properties out there that are cyclical. Look at the NBA,” says Initiative Media’s Koerner.
“What happened with the NBA is that there was a dark period in the late ‘80s, then a resurgence in the ‘90s with bigger stars, better promotions, and more cross-promotional marketing.”
Adgate from Horizon Media says, “Wrestling was never this big before, it’s never had primetime coverage and never had stars making theatrical releases. It’s never been bigger than this wave, and whether it can come back and capture it again is in question.”
Vince McMahon is never to be counted out, Adgate says, but “I don’t know how much further he can push the envelope with content in terms of the advertising community.”
Koerner says that WWE could begin to turn around its ratings by continuing to build the profiles of its brawlers in other media.
“They probably want to get more stars into more diverse properties, and at the same time rescue their existing stars and bring them back,“ says Koerner.
“The more you cross-pollinate your characters in other areas of media, the better chance you have of finding ways to bring in viewers.”
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