Why Polarization is bad for Popularity
In wrestling in the WWE there is a guy named Roman Reigns, he is the face of the company, he is supposed to be the successor of Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock and John Cena. But he is not in their league, he is not entertaining as them, not even close. This makes him polarizing, some love him and some hate him and he was often booed because of that, even though he was the good guy.
His segments tend to have the highest ratings, so he seems to be a success. WWE has already lost a lot of viewers since its peak around the year 2000, but since he became the face of the company, the ratings have declined even faster and especially the young viewers have lost the interest. The median age was 52 a couple of years ago and in 15 years, many of them will be dead or unable to watch it.
Some think he is the shining hope that keeps WWE alive, but I think he is one of the main reasons why WWE doing so bad. If someone polarizing as him is pushed, many fans who don’t like him will just stop to watch. The ratio of viewers who like him will now increase, because those who don’t like him leave. They leave and the ratings go down, while the ratings of his segments are the best. This can give the impression that he is very popular, while in reality he is the reason why the ratings are so bad.
It doesn’t have to be necessarily true, but declining popularity and polarization are a good sign that it’s the case. Once he is gone, the ratings will go down and it will take some time to gain new viewers or past viewers and many will never return. It’s also possible that someone is polarizing and can actually increase the popularity, because they attract more new viewers than they alienate.