Post by nwa88 on Sept 17, 2014 1:44:15 GMT -5
We got into this discussion in one of the recent Nitro threads and I followed up on it with a post like the one below, but since it's buried in the comments from a couple of Nitro's back and I just responded, I thought it might be of interest to discuss here since it's a longstanding misconception and a popular topic on the blog.
Plus you can do nifty little tables in here!
First the numbers:
Monday Night Wars
January 4, 1999
Quarter Hour Ratings Breakdown
A few observations --
Plus you can do nifty little tables in here!
First the numbers:
Monday Night Wars
January 4, 1999
Quarter Hour Ratings Breakdown
| Nitro | Raw | Details | |
| Q1 | 4.9 | N: Intro, Hugh Morris vs Glacier | |
| Q2 | 5.6 | N: Flair/Bischoff segment | |
| Q3 | 5.9 | N: Flair/Bischoff segment, Booker T vs Emery Hale | |
| Q4 | 5.8 | N: Chavo vs Norman Smiley, Benoit vs Horace, Goldberg arrest angle | |
| Q1 | 4.4 | 5.9 | N: Goldberg arrest angle, Hogan shows up, Jericho vs Saturn R: Vince/Shawn Interview |
| Q2 | 4.4 | 5.6 | N: Nitro Party, Elizabeth/Goldberg, LWO Video R: Steve Blackman vs Ken Shamrock, Mankind promo |
| Q3 | 4.5 | 6.0 | N: Juventud/Psicosis vs Rey Jr/Kidman, Goldberg angle R: Mark Henry vs Goldust, Jesse Ventura clips |
| Q4 | 5.1 | 5.2 | N: Nash/Flair interview, Elizabeth angle, Hogan interview, "butts in the seats" comment R: Test vs Godfather, HHH vs Mankind |
| Q1 | 5.1 | 5.7 | N: Jericho clip, Steiner/Buff interview, Konnan vs Scott Steiner R: Mankind/Vince/Shane interview, Edge vs D'Lo Brown, Terri angle |
| Q2 | 4.7 | 5.7 | N: Wrath interview, Bam Bam vs Wrath, Elizabeth/Goldberg angle R: Terri angle, Kane/Patterson/Brisco/Vince angle |
| Q3 | 4.1 | 6.2 | N: DDP vs Bryan Adams R: Road Dog vs Al Snow, DX backstage |
| Q4 | 4.6 | 5.9 | N: Goldberg/Liz angle R: Shawn/Vince, Start of Rock/Foley |
| OR | 6.5 | 5.1 | N: Hogan vs Nash, Fingerpoke of Doom, R: Rest of Rock/Foley |
A few observations --
- Tony's 'butts in the seats' comment came right at the end of the first head to head hour. The quarter hour he said it in scored a 5.1 and the next quarter hour also a 5.1. So certainly no big turnover there.
- Rock/Foley came at the very end of the last head to head quarter hour and ran into the overrun. It lost points to Nitro as it went on and in fact the Hogan/Nash match/angle itself killed Rock/Foley 6.5 to 5.1 in the overrun. That's the only time Nitro won in the head to head battle the whole night. Nitro ended about a minute before RAW as well.
- The biggest disparity in ratings was during the DDP vs Bryan Adams match up against Road Dogg and Al Snow (4.1 for Nitro to 6.2 for RAW). RAW peaked at that point and went down the rest of the show, while Nitro went up.
- The book "Death to WCW" has this exact quote: "The biggest gap, not surprisingly, immediately followed Schiavonie's announcement that Foley The Joke would win the belt, as Raw hit a 6.2 opposite Nitro's 4.1" which probably is the reason why it persists. That's impossible of course, as Tony's comment came right at the end of the second hour and start of the third hour, more than 30 minutes before the actual quarter hour it's attributed to and 45 minutes before the match actually started.
- The next week, Nitro pulled closer in the ratings -- so perhaps you could argue (as many have on here) that while the Fingerpoke was in bad taste, it wasn't death to the ratings and perhaps the lack of an interesting follow-up has more to do with the rapid drop-off.
- Road Dogg = ratings!
