Stone Cold Steve Austin was on Loveline (Dr. Drew Pinsky's nationally syndicated radio program) last night, promoting the release of Damage. He was on for the full 2 hours but he only discussed wrestling briefly.
When a caller asked him about his experience hosting RAW this week he said that it was a little weird trying to do his character in a PG world and that Vince was unaware that Austin would be drinking beer in the ring (though Stone Cold didn't know that until after he did it).
Stone Cold participated in answering a number of odd "love" related questions but he did not discuss his personal life in any detail. I'm fairly certain that the show was broadcast live last night west of Colorado, but radio stations east of Colorado that air Loveline will broadcast Stone Cold's appearance tonight (generally that is how Loveline works).
All in all, Stone Cold was pretty entertaining, but it was quite obvious during the discussion that his wrestling days are over and he is focused now on acting (not that anyone reading the site should be surprised by that). When asked if he will be ever returning to the ring, he basically said never say never, but he feel that it is extremely unlikely.
For the week ending March 7, 2010...
Impact from March 4 (airing on March 6) drew 82,000 viewers (-9,000 viewers), with the Bravo+1 timeshift "replay" drawing 70,000.
Raw from March 1
- drew 51,000 viewers in Thursday evening's replay
- drew 17,000 in a Friday morning (8am) replay
SmackDown from March 5
- drew 86,000 viewers in its first airing (-79,000 viewers)
Superstars from March 4
- drew 54,000 viewers on Saturday night March 6
NXT (episode 2)
- drew 51,000 in the first airing on Thursay night (+13,000)
- drew 45,000 in a Saturday night replay
For what it's worth, the plan right now is for the Smackdown brand stars to make regular appearances on RAW from now until the Draft in April.
The USA Network issued the following press release touting their ratings last week, including a comparison of how WWE RAW vs. TNA Impact's debut on Monday 3/8:
USA REMAINS #1 IN CABLE
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – March 16, 2010 – USA was the #1 network in cable prime this week, delivering more P25-54 (1.15 million, +24% over #2 TBS), P18-49 (1.10 million, +1% over #2 TBS) and households (1.84 million, +3% over #2 DSNY) than any of its cable competitors while earning the top basic cable household coverage rating of the week (1.86, +0.04 over #2 DSNY). USA delivered more total viewers (2.48 million, +10% over #2 FOXNC) than any other ad-supported network on cable. No other cable network delivered over 1 million P25-54 in prime.
USA continued to outperform The CW, with double-digit victories among P25-54 (+29%) and total viewers (+41%) as well as outperforming the broadcaster among P18-49 (+9%). Cable’s #1 network registered victories over “Big 4″ broadcast networks in 13 primetime hours this week (M-Su 8P-11P) thanks to USA Originals WHITE COLLAR and PSYCH, WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW, hit movies and episodes of the top acquired series on cable, NCIS, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT and HOUSE.
USA was home of four of the top ten P25-54 telecasts in prime this week and three of the top P18-49 with original hours of WHITE COLLAR and WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW and the top acquired series on cable, NCIS.
* The season finale of WHITE COLLAR was the most watched episode of the series since the season premiere on 1/19/10 among P25-54 (1.87 million) and P18-49 (1.85 million), enjoying double digit gains week to week in every demo. It was the most watched scripted telecast this week among P25-54 and the top telecast overall on cable prime Tuesday night among P25-54, P18-49, total viewers (4.04 million) and households (2.76 million), as well as the top scripted telecast in prime that night among P18-34 (902,000). WHITE COLLAR was the only scripted telecast in basic cable prime to draw over 1.5 million P25-54 viewers this week. Additionally, WHITE COLLAR delivered nearly twice as many P18-49 (+92%) and total viewers (+96%) than the new episode of TNT’s “Southland,” with significant margins among P25-54 (+75%), P18-34 (+89%) and households (+76%). USA’s newest hit series also beat ABC’s new episode of “The Forgotten” head to head at 10P among P18-34, M18-34 and M18-49, and more M18-34 watched WHITE COLLAR than anything on NBC or the new episode of “The Good Wife” on CBS.
* Season 4.5 of PSYCH was the most popular season of the series ever among P18-34, averaging 823,000 of these viewers (prior high was Season 2.5 in 1Q08). PSYCH finished the season as the #1 P18-49 cable telecast in Wednesday night’s prime (1.46 million), delivering more total viewers (2.95 million) and households (2.05 million) than any other cable entertainment telecast in the night’s prime. PSYCH was the most watched scripted telecast of the night among P18-34 (809,000) and the top drama for P25-54 (1.38 million). Additionally, more P18-34 watched PSYCH Wednesday night than new episodes of “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Ugly Betty” or “Mercy.” PSYCH drew more males of this demo than these shows, too, as well as beating “Scrubs” and “CSI: NY” in M18-34.
* Only a pair of series-high episodes of “Pawn Stars” on History outperformed WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW this week among P18-49 (2.59 million) while among P25-54 (2.46million), RAW was behind only “Pawn Stars” and a series-high “American Pickers.” RAW delivered nearly four times as many P18-49 (+274%), P18-34 (+293%) and total viewers (+275%) as TNA “Impact” in the first night of its new timeslot head-to-head against RAW and more than tripled their P25-54 (+226%) and household (+246%) audiences. In RAW’s 9P-11P time period, USA outperformed NBC in delivering P18-34, P18-49, P25-54 and total viewers, besting ABC and FOX among M18-34 and ABC in M18-49, M25-54 and M2+.
* NCIS continues to be the top acquired series in prime, delivering more P25-54 (1.57 million), total viewers (4.27 million) and households (3.12 million) than any other off-net series on cable. NCIS was the only acquired series to appear in the week’s P25-54 top ten and the only one to deliver over 1.5 million of these viewers, 3 million total viewers or 2 million households in prime this week. LAW & ORDER: SEPCIAL VICTIMS UNIT was second only to NCIS among acquired primetime this week for total viewers P2+ (2.21 million) and households (1.74 million).
USA Network is the #1 network in all of basic cable and is seen in over 98.5 million U.S. homes. A division of NBC Universal, USA is the cable television leader in original series and home to the best in blockbuster theatrical films, acquired television series and entertainment events. The award-winning USA website is located at www.usanetwork.com. Characters Welcome.
USA Network is a program service of NBC Universal Cable a division of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.
The first reports are that RAW did a 3.71 and Impact did an 0.84 (0.88 first hour, 0.80 second hour).
Impact did an average of 1.1 million viewers. Viewership was down 21.4 percent from last week's 1.4 million viewers. RAW did 5.60 million viewers.
Impact had the usual ratings pattern where the rating was strong during the first quarter with an 0.84 but bottomed out at the during the final quarter with an 0.72 for AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy. The overrun did an 0.74.
Steve Austin posted the following message on his Twitter account (steveaustinbsr):
"with 2 weeks to go to mania, had to work within story lines. couldnt give stunners to everyone, they have a huge ppv . promoted DAMAGE."
"great to see the guys. lot of fun talking to hhh, hbk, show, cena, bret, and more. and visiting with my camera and sound buddies."
"the pg thing is a real deal. great direction for the wwe. a wise decision. although that took 92% of my vocabulary away."
"caught a ride back to LA with cena. good ride. good conversation. class act. he is representing very well."
- The Bella Twins vs. Jillian Hall & Katie Lea as well as Christian, Mark Henry & Yoshi Tatsu vs. Jack Swagger, Zack Ryder and William Regal was taped before RAW tonight for Superstars this Thursday.
- Stu Hart will officially be going into the WWE Hall of Fame this year after Steve Austin announced it on RAW tonight.
- Randy Orton and Triple H vs. Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and Sheamus has been announced as the main event of next week’s RAW.
WWE Hall of Famer Pete Rose will be hosting next week’s show.
The Hot Tub Time Machine cast members are no longer listed as upcoming RAW guest hosts for March 29th and word is that things fell through. There is no word yet on who will be hosting the show.
There are rumors that The Rock will host be hosting RAW on June 7th in Miami at the American Airlines Arena. However, that is not confirmed and it is more likely that Rock will wait until a later date when he has something to promote.
