SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last night’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw drew a 1.79 rating, a drop from last week’s 1.87 despite airing the night after Hell in a Cell featuring the buzz-generating return of Brock Lesnar and several other big matches.
The show opened with a strong first hour rating of 2.839 million viewers (the prior ten-week average was 2.902 million). The second hour dropped to 2.746 million (the prior ten-week average was 2.882 million). The third hour dropped to 2.432 million (the prior ten-week average was 2.686 million). So the third hour performed considerably worse than usual, the drop-off from the first to the third hour was 407,000, nearly double the prior ten week average of 217,000.
The rating this week is sharply down from the 1.93 rating one year ago this week and 1.97 rating two years ago this week. Only three other episodes this year were rated below 1.80.
The main event featured a Universal Title defense by Roman Reigns against Baron Corbin. The third hour began with Ronda Rousey’s “open challenge” which turned into an angle, not a match.
The ten-week rolling average going into this week was 1.95. The 2018 average so far is 2.07, down from the 2.12 average rating through this week last year.
Raw dropped in the cable ratings to the no. 5, 6, and 7 spots among the key demographic of 18-49 year old adults. ESPn’s NFL-related shows and VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop Hollywood” were the only shows that were ranked higher. In total viewers, six shows finished higher than Raw including sports and political news shows.
CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S RATINGS REPORT: Raw Rating: How did program fare up against week one of NFL Monday Night Football, key metrics, year-ago comparisons, hourly data, ranking
WWE Raw has been a shit show for years. Roman’s push has been boring for what five years? Ratings have shown people aren’t interested.