The Fast National rating for WWE’s “Saturday Night’s Main Event” came in below a 3.4 last night (specific numbers were not available at press time), indicating that wrestling’s presence on a major network did nothing to revitalize interest in the product.
According to Nielsen Media Research, NBC’s two hours of wrestling caused the network to place last among the four channels offering national programming Saturday night.
The professional wrestling industry was looking for a significantly higher number, going as far as to suggest that anything below a 5.0 would be a disappointment.
While those within the TV industry had lower expectations, the score is also below those estimates and does not create an optimistic outlook for future WWE programming on NBC (outside of the confirmed summer SNME).
WWE sources will likely attribute the low rating to the NCAA tournament, but even then, the company will not be able to spin this as great news.
