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Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling's flagship program, Impact Wrestling, will remain live for the remainder of the year, save for select holiday episodes. The company announced as much today in a joint press release with Spike TV.
Spike TV's highly-rated weekly series "Impact Wrestling" will continue to run LIVE in its current 8:00pm timeslot through the end of 2012, it was jointly announced today by Dixie Carter, President, TNA Entertainment, and Kevin Kay, President, Spike TV.
The move to broadcasting LIVE has been a ratings boon and has provided a significant rise in the show's social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Spike TV began airing "Impact Wrestling" LIVE, instead of its traditional taped format, on Thursday, May 31 from Universal Studios in Orlando. As a result of the change, Spike's 8-10pm timeslot has grown +33% in households, +47% in Men 18-49, and +35% in total viewers.
Details for "Impact Wrestling" production plans for 2013 will be announced at a later date.
Impact Wrestling still pulls solid ratings but going live hasn't had much of an effect at all. In fact, the switch to the new time slot created a time period of down ratings that has seemed to dissipate in recent weeks. Based on this release, as well as the news that MMA Uncensored Live has moved back an hour and Bellator will start airing its programming on Spike in 2013, it seems obvious its in the cable channel's best interest to make sure Impact Wrestling is as strong as possible to have a solid Thursday night line up of programming.
With Impact Wrestling as its lead in, MMA Uncensored Live did its best numbers ever. With Muhammad "King Mo" Lawal set to start with TNA sometime next month and Bellator on the way, the future of Thursday nights on Spike is looking bright.