page_title: TNA Impact!'s move to Monday nights
section_title: Move to Mondays
hierarchical_section_title: TNA Impact!'s move to Monday nights / Move to Mondays
caption_attribution_description: English: Eric Bischoff at a TNA Impact! taping
context_page_description: In March 2010, professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling moved their weekly television program, Impact!, from airing on Thursdays to airing Monday nights. In doing so, TNA placed Impact! in direct competition with World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship program Monday Night Raw. It drew comparisons to the Monday Night Wars, in which defunct wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling program Nitro went head-to-head with Raw in a battle for higher Nielsen ratings each week from 1995 to 2001; this led Impact!'s move to sometimes be called "The New Monday Night Wars". The move was spurred by the signing of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, two central figures of the original Monday Night War. Unlike the ratings battle with WCW, TNA never gained traction against WWE, despite initially setting record high ratings for Impact!. Impact! returned to its Thursday night timeslot after declining ratings in May, less than two months after the move.
context_section_description: On March 8, 2010, Impact! moved to Monday nights at 9 pm EST to compete head-to-head with Raw. Eric Bischoff was once again competing on the opposite side of Vince McMahon's WWE and in an interview with Bubba the Love Sponge, he said that he believed "history is repeating itself". This new "war" began in much the same way as the original did; with TNA relying on established wrestlers, including former WWE talent, and with the company being led by Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. WWE spokesman Robert Zimmerman responded to TNA's move by saying "We're not too concerned. We're in good shape."  Bischoff and Russo each stated that TNA were not focused on beating WWE in the ratings straight away, but rather gaining a significant share of their audience and growing TNA's own audience.
  On the March 8, 2010, Raw beat Impact! with a 3.4 rating which equated to approximately 5.1 million viewers, while Impact! did a 0.98 with 1.4 million viewers; the replay of the show on Thursdays did 1.0, getting TNA a combined audience of 2.7 million viewers. The following week, the March 15 episode of Impact! scored its lowest rating since November 2006 with a .84 rating. No quarter-hour segment of Impact! reached past the previous week's overall rating. The broadcast lost 15% of the audience it opened with, going from a .87 opening quarter-hour to a .72 in the A.J. Styles versus Jeff Hardy main event. Impact! averaged 1.1 million viewers, an overall decrease of 21.4% in viewership from the previous week. Raw scored a 3.71 rating and averaged 5.60 million viewers, an overall increase of 10% in viewership from the previous week. The broadcast's first hour was the most viewed first hour since August 24, 2009, while the second was the most viewed second hour since January 4, 2010. On March 22, six days before WrestleMania XXVI, Raw scored a 3.2 and Impact! scored a 0.86. Raw's rating was down more than one million viewers, equating to about 20%. Ratings for Impact! had improved slightly over the last week as they promoted a Career vs. Career match between Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley.
  The night after WrestleMania XXVI, Raw scored a 3.7 rating, up from last week, and Impact! scored a 0.62. Spike executives announced the April 5 live Impact! would air an hour earlier than Raw due to competition from an NCAA college basketball tournament. The April 5 episode of Raw lost 14% of their viewers with a 3.15 rating, while Impact! scored a 0.9 rating, their highest rating since the March 15 episode, gaining a 33% in total viewers as they aired Kurt Angle vs. Mr. Anderson in a ladder match. After better ratings for the April 5 episode of Impact!, TNA decided to start Impact! at the 8:00 p.m. ET time slot permanently. The April 12 episode of Raw made a comeback with a 3.24 rating, while the taped Impact! scored a 0.8 rating managing to keep most of their audience. Then on April 19, the night after TNA Lockdown, Raw scored a 3.05 rating, their lowest score in two years, while Impact! scored a 0.95 rating, their highest score since April 5 as they featured a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match between Rob Van Dam and A.J. Styles. On April 26, Raw aired the 2010 WWE draft, and scored a 3.3 rating, while Impact! lost 48% of their audience with a 0.5 rating.
  Impact! moved back to Thursday nights starting with the May 13 show. On the final battle between Raw and Impact!, Raw drew a 3.05 and Impact! drew a 0.8 rating gaining a 37.5% in total viewers. The replay ratings of most of Monday night episodes were sufficient for survival but showed that the average audience is some two million viewers that prefer to watch on Thursdays. 
  In a press release, Spike TV's Senior Vice President of Sports and Specials, Brian J. Diamond, said: "The fans have spoken and with their input we have determined the best time slot to maximize the TNA audience is on Thursday nights where we are confident it will be among the most-watched shows with young men". In the same announcement, TNA president Dixie Carter was quoted as saying, "Our fans made it clear that they preferred the Thursday 
caption: Bischoff at a TNA event in July 2010
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