March 27, 2006 Observer Newsletter: WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event tanks, sanctioned MMA begins in California
It took 15 years for WWE to return to NBC for Saturday Night’s Main Event, but it took only one night for the people involved in negotiating the deal to be embarrassed.
A good show, promoted like hell, featuring every big name in the company as well as the returns of Steve Austin and Jim Ross (admittedly only touched on and not hyped at all) drew a 3.11 final rating and 5.15 million viewers (combination live and same-day video/Tivo watching) on 3/18 from 8-10 p.m.
To put this number into perspective, that is slightly lower than the XFL (considered one of the biggest TV flops in history) averaged for the season in the same time slot five years ago. And, the XFL came before the ratings included same day recording device viewing.
The show led to NBC finishing dead last among the four networks that program on Saturdays, even though Fox and ABC aired repeat programming.
Subscribers can click here to read this issue.
Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.