By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

WWE Raw on Monday, September 12 scored a 2.71 rating vs. Monday Night Football Week 1, down ten percent from a 3.00 rating on Labor Day Monday last week. Raw was down 14 percent compared to the August 29 Raw two weeks ago.

Raw averaged 3.86 million total viewers, which was down eight percent compared to last week's show and the fewest number of viewers of the year other than the July 4 episode. (Raw only averaged 150,000 more viewers than Fourth of July.) The first hour averaged 3.82 million viewers and the second hour increased slightly to an average of 3.89 million viewers.

-- On cable TV Monday night, Raw ranked #10 in overall viewers. Among males 18-34 and males 18-49, Raw ranked #2 behind Monday Night Football by a wide margin (8.00 rating in m18-49 for MNF vs. 2.04 rating for Raw).

While all demographics were down compared to the last two weeks and yearly averages, the teen male rating is particularly noteworthy due to another ten percent drop to a ratings level not seen on Raw in years. Compared to the same week's Raw one year ago, the males 12-17 rating is down 46 percent.

-- Last year's Raw against NFL Week 1 on Monday Night Football averaged 4.35 million viewers after declining to 4.24 million viewers on Labor Day 2010. Last year, WWE dipped below the four-million-viewer benchmark against Weeks 2 and 3, but stayed above four million the remainder of the season.

Looking at the level of competition from Monday Night Football, there wasn't an increase in viewership from last year to this year's Week 1 game. This year's first game averaged 14.5 million viewers vs. 15.0 million viewers last year, and the second game averaged 11.1 million this year vs. 12.0 million viewers last year.

Caldwell's Analysis: Despite renewed interest in the NFL this year post-Lockout Scare, there wasn't much of a change in viewership this year vs. last year to explain Raw's ratings decline. The creative, product, marketing, etc. simply isn't working. The steadily declining demographic ratings over the summer leading to the fall season are a cause for concern and will continue to be a factor throughout the fall season.

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