ITV World of Sport: Tapings postponed until July?

[garynysmon]

I thought it was fine. Personally I'd have started the show with a hot match such as  Davey Boy Jr v Will Ospreay, given you're trying to gain a fresh new audience but it was an easy hour to watch so no massive complaints.

[Tim R-T-C]

I enjoyed it, but for a show aimed at casual fans, who may never have watched wrestling before, that opening match was baffling and introducing wrestlers with no introduction may have made it hard to follow.

Much as I would normally hate the idea - perhaps having some TV presents like... shudder... Ant and Dec.... talking to the wrestlers and commentators for the first few episodes to explain things to the audience, and running some nice straight forward matches, might make it more accessible.

I suppose the key factor is how much of the market they retain for show 2.

[Michael_3165]

Just now, Supremo said:

I actually thought that camera angle shot from directly above the ring was quite novel. WWE only ever use that camera during ladder matches but I think there’s a regular place for it. It always makes the big moves like the Superplex look more devastating.

Other than that the camera angles didn’t really affect me. The only angle that’s ever made me feel sick was that weird floaty camera that haunted Smackdown for a few months last year. Thankfully they look to he packed it in.

With WWE signing up so much talent to sabotage this show, I wonder what they think of Grado? Do you think they’d ever consider signing him? 

I agree the above the ring shot is cool and can show the impact when used right. The rest is weird!

[uklaw]

After watching it twice to see if I saw things differently I concluded that:

-For the audience it was aiming for (and despite what Tom McLennan says, it’s not UKFF’s and the like) it was colourful, pacey and ‘exciting’ enough that it probably kept their interest for the episode. Grado went full Big Daddy (Easy, Easy) mixed in with sitcom buffoon that probably garnered a laugh or two in the homes of the families ITV hoped would watch. And after the first match, I decided to stay with the show till the end, not out of a sense of obligation but because I was interested enough to see if Rampage would win (as it makes the most story sense for the rest of the series to have him fending off all manner of brave and plucky face contenders).

-In order to retain its slot till September 29th and secure a second series, they have to work like mad to seriously grow their core (family/kid) viewership. Because once some ‘hardcore’ or ‘traditional’ fans make their peace with the show and stop watching and a fair number choose the football (and post-match journies and phone-ins), that could reduce numbers further.

For me, I’ll watch next week and assess my likelihood of staying until episode 10. If there is promise, it’d be silly of me cut off my nose to spite my face.

[Guest]

My only real complaint is that the finish of the first match was clear as mud, and wasn't the only incident that could have been better explained on commentary.

Other than that, the show was better than I expected and a noble attempt to get an ITV audience into modern British wrestling.

It deserves to build on that initial rating this week, though in all honesty I'm not holding my breath.

[JNLister]

So I now have more details from the DigitalSpy poster, plus I've got some of the BARB data myself.

Short version: 920k is the real figure. That almost certainly needs to improve. The peak audience was at the end, which is a healthy sign. The audience was much older than you'd expect and the percentage of viewers who were children was likely lower (maybe even much lower) than you'd expect.

Long version:

 

From BARB data I’ve seen first-hand

 

• The average viewing figure was 937,000. This includes all three channels that aired it (ITV/ITV+1/ITVHD).
• 8.59% of people watching TV at the time were watching WOS Wrestling.
• 2.085 million people watched at least one minute of the show. (This may have been skewed by people tuning in at the end for the news.)
• Just over 5% of the people who watched were children (aged 4-15). That compares with around 11 percent of the population as a whole being in those age groups. As of 2016, 5% of the overall average ITV audience were children, so you’d expect it to be a bit higher in a 5pm timeslot. So it possibly did worse among children than you’d expect and it’s definitely not the case that the style of the show is attracting a big kids audience.

 

From a regular ratings info poster on Digital Spy who has access to data and appears credible

• The actual average audience for the time the wrestling was on was 920,000. (That’s different to the 937,000 which is for the 5pm-6pm timeslot and includes the ads after the show and will be boosted by people tuning in for the news.)
• The last five minutes (17.50-17.55) was the peak audience for the wrestling at 1.03 million.
• The show on ITV beforehand (The Chase) did 963,000. The show on ITV afterwards (News) did 2.52 million.
• The most watched show on any channel (Dads Army film on BBC 2) did 1.59 million.
• 54% of the WOS audience was male.
• 9% of the audience was aged 16-34. (So combined with the children figure, that leaves 86% of the audience was aged over 34.)
• 30% of the audience was socio-economic class ABC1.
• Almost half of viewers in the lower socio-economic DE group were watching WOS Wrestling.
• WOS Wrestling was the most watched show in its timeslot among 45-54 year olds.

 

From WOSWrestling (the makers of the show)

• The peak audience was 1.2 million (this doesn’t match the data reported above.)
• It’s set to be the highest rated British Wrestling TV show in over 30 years. (The overnight for the pilot in 2017 was 1.25 million, so this seems unlikely.)

 

From an ITV scheduler on a personal Twitter account:

• “This number [920,000] is incorrect”.
• “The figure you published does not include +1 or HD viewing.” (This is not the case)
• “The number we received this morning was higher than what you published.” (This could be the 920k vs 937k issue, which seems odd to quibble about, or it could be the number he received was the peak rather than the average, which seems odd for a TV industry person to misunderstand.)

 

Note:

All these figures are ‘overnights’ meaning they only cover the live broadcast and any timeshift/on demand viewing from the same day. The final figure will include any timeshifted or on demand viewing in the seven days after broadcast.

 

[garynysmon]

If the viewers tended to be older then that can't be good going forward.

The reason I say that is that the wrestling was very 'American' and I can imagine that a good portion of the audience hadn't seen a bout since it was dropped by ITV in the late 80's. Perhaps in hindsight it would have been more sensible to start with old-school, good wrestling matches and as the audience become more familiar with the wrestlers etc, gradually ramp up the storylines and fatal four way's etc.

[Supremo]

Forgive me if this has already been asked, but how did the WOS numbers compare to what ITV usually does in that time slot, or what Raw and Smackdown do on Sky Sports?

[machinegunn]

More people watched Dad's Army than WOS. Just think about that. Dad's Army turns 50 tomorrow.

The other point about the highed audience demographic being 45-54 is a major concern. I am a 40 year old wrestling fan and aside from £ 9.99 a month (we know what that is for) and the meet and greets of anyone who wrestled at Wrestlemania 20 and before they are going to struggle to find a market to sell their merchandise too.

I do actually want to see this fail, it is too old school, British seaside farye. I would love to know how many who watched this who were over 40 and voted to leave the EU, I bet it would be high.

[Tamura]

16 minutes ago, machinegunn said:

More people watched Dad's Army than WOS. Just think about that. Dad's Army turns 50 tomorrow.

Not Dad's Army, Mr Lister said the Dad's Army film. Or to be more precise, this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06t3m7t

Or it might have been Don't Panic! The Dad's Army Story. My TV guide says one but BBC say the other. Either way it wasn't just a Dad's Army episode.

[Daaaaaad!]

15 minutes ago, machinegunn said:

I do actually want to see this fail

You should make it clearer.

[garynysmon]

26 minutes ago, machinegunn said:

I do actually want to see this fail, it is too old school, British seaside farye. I would love to know how many who watched this who were over 40 and voted to leave the EU, I bet it would be high.

If this fails do you honestly think that any mainstream channel will ever touch pro wrestling again?

I understand it may not be to your tastes but to wish it to fail is ridiculous tbh. I know there's a lot of interest in the WWE UK promotion, but let's not forget what it is. A show broadcast on the WWE Network to fans that are already wrestling obsessed enough to be willing to shell out £9.99 a month for even more wrestling than what's already on TV. You're not going to attract a new fanbase that way. 

 

[Hannibal Scorch]

38 minutes ago, machinegunn said:

I do actually want to see this fail, it is too old school, British seaside farye. I would love to know how many who watched this who were over 40 and voted to leave the EU, I bet it would be high.

What a grim attitude to have.

It's taken over 30 years for the chance to have British Wrestling back on mainstream TV (and 16 years since ANY wrestling). Is it the type of show I want to watch over other promotions? No. But this will surely have a better impact on the UK scene then if it wasn't on at all. I'd rather have this, and to be able to see some of the biggest draws on the UK scene get mainstream exposure then get nothing. Plus it will probably put more bums in seats of indy shows

[Edgehead]

I have no intention to watch the show, but I don't look forward to seeing it fail either.

[Supremo]

Wanting to see it fail is quite the approach to have. Even it doesn’t appeal to you, why would you not want wrestling to be mainstream and for the wrestlers themselves to have better exposure?