SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last night’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw drew a 1.72 rating, up from last week’s 1.61 rating and above the May average of 1.66, but well below the 2019 average so far of 1.81 and the average rating through this week last year of 2.20 and the average two years ago of 2.18.
The first hour drew 2.308 million viewers, then the rating grew to 2.558 million in the second hour, then dropped back to 2.349 million in the third hour. By comparison, the NHL game on NBC drew 5.13 million viewers.
The third hour viewership being as high as it was could be attributed to Undertaker’s advertised promo and a rare appearance of Randy Orton on Raw in his face-to-face with Triple H. The surge in the second hour could be attributed to WWE advertising a Brock Lesnar cash-in of his Money in the Bank contract against Seth Rollins, which didn’t happen.
All three hours of Raw finished in the top three spots in the 18-49 demographic with ratings of 0.7, 0.8, and 0.8.
The ratings will probably fall at a greater rate than the payoff after they did not deliver on the match.