SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last night’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw on USA Network drew a 2.15 rating, down from last week’s 2.20 rating. The 2017 average is 2.12, so it drew a notch above that. The ten week rolling average headed into this week was 2.05.
The average through two weeks of August is 2.18, above the 2.07 for July, the 1.96 for June, and the 1.88 for May. It’s below the April average of 2.32 and March average of 2.21.
The rating slightly beat the Raw rating from one year ago this week of 2.12 by 0.03.
The show opened with 3.42 million viewers in the first hour, dropped to 3.29 million viewers in the second hour, and ten dropped below 3 million viewers to 2.99 in the the third hour.
Keller’s Analysis: What jumps out here for sure is that drop-off from the first to the third hour of 431,000. That’s well above the 232,000 average for the year. Was there little interest in the Fatal Four-way confrontation that they heavily advertised? Or did people lose patience with the Mickie James vs. Emma and Hardys & Jason Jordan vs. Miztourage long six-man tag match?
“Was there little interest in the Fatal Four-way confrontation that they heavily advertised? Or did people lose patience with the Mickie James vs. Emma and Hardys & Jason Jordan vs. Miztourage long six-man tag match?”
Both, probably. The good bits of a “confrontation” that isn’t a match are basically guaranteed to end up on YouTube for free anyway, and Mickie James vs Emma and that sixman tag were practically the definition of filler.
The WWE increasingly treat the end of hour 2 as the main event slot is working for them for the time being from a ratings perspective and to get more eyeballs on their big angles, but one wonders if they are going to end up completely killing hour 3 in the long run.
Ratings still way down since the heyday. A low point for sports entertainment, but actual wrestling is on the rise.