‘Ink Master’ season 3 finale, Joey Hamilton’s win down vs. season 2; blame ‘Sons of Anarchy’?

Is the “Ink Master‘ craze already starting to die down? Personally, we hope not; we love Spike TV’s tattoo competition, even if they’ve made some pretty baffling choices, including keeping Tatu Baby around far longer than they should have and some judges who really needed some coaching of their own on how to be consistent.

But when you look at the ratings, the final hour of Tuesday night’s finale, which featured Joey Hamilton winning the title and the cash, drew 1.79 million viewers and a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This is still an outstanding number for the series, but it is a decline from the 2.36 million and the 1.3 demo from last year’s finale.

So what’s the biggest difference between the two? For us, much of it is about timing rather than anyone upset about the direction of the show. Last year’s finale aired close to the Christmas holiday, a time when there was little else in the way of competition on TV. It also did not air against “Sons of Anarchy,” a show that has a very similar sort of following (including a guest spot from Dave Navarro this season) and also is the sort of thing where if you don’t watch it live, someone will spoil it.

It is for this reason that we are personally advocating for a schedule shift for season 4. Maybe that’s why Spike is starting production a little earlier, but an airing for June-September (or even March-June) would be more appropriate for the show as they would have a little less competition. Ultimately, though, what the show really needs to do is find a time of year to air, and then stick to it rather than just bouncing all over the place.

As we said yesterday, we’re going to be your go-to source for all “Ink Master” scoop throughout the offseason. Want to read more? Then just click here, where you can find out how you can be a human canvas next season.

Photo: FX