SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last night’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw in live and same night DVR viewership on USA Network drew a rating of 2.28, the highest rating since the last two Raws of January during Royal Rumble season. It’s the third highest rating since the end of last summer before the NFL season began. It is well behind the year-ago rating of 2.59.
The rating beats the February average of 2.20 and January average of 2.20. The ten week average headed into this week was 2.18. It beats the ten week average headed into this week of 2.21.
The first-to-third hour drop off was above average, though, with 368,000 fewer viewers in the third hour than the first. The first hour drew 3.13 million viewers compared to the third drawing 2.92 million viewers.
Keller’s Analysis: That big drop off from the first to the third hour was a price they pay for not advertising Undertaker ahead of time and instead having his appearance be a surprise. The Samoa Joe vs. Chris Jericho main event wasn’t advertised heavily or hyped as being that big of a deal. Promos from Joe and Jericho and a little more hype from announcers framing the importance of the match could have helped.
A 2 rating is nothing to brag about considering the ratings that wrestling earned just a few years ago. A 2? Yay shout to the rafters1
I really don’t see the ratings needle moving up much. There is just not enough wrestling on WWE’s “wrestling entertainment” shows. Fart and dick joke skits don’t get ratings on a consistent basis. It just bores you into turning the channel.
Two thoughts: are WWE network views added in to the ratings? if not the larger subscriber base the less TV ratings are meaningful.
And: it’s a balancing act… your can mover ratings short term by advertising… but the big ratings came historically because it was an “event” you didn’t want to “miss”. Making people think anything can happen – and delivering things people regret missing… is much bigger long term than short term advertising.