SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last night’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw (8/19) drew a 1.76 rating, a drop back to the ten-week rolling average after an upturn last week for the day-after-Summerslam episode of 1.92.
The viewership bounced around a bit from 2.546 million in the first hour, to a peak rating of 2.634 rating in the second hour, and a drop to 2.422 million in the third hour.
One year ago, Raw drew a 2.13 rating and two years ago a 2.29 rating.
The current year average through this week is 1.78 compared to a 2.11 rating through this week last year and a 2.14 rating two years ago through this week.
The NFL preseason game on ESPN outdrew Raw in the key 18-49 demographic with a 0.9 rating in that demo and a 3.011 million viewership overall, outdrawing Raw’s middle hour by nearly 400,000 viewers. Raw’s middle hour also drew a 0.9 rating in that demo. The first and third hours of Raw drew 0.8 ratings.
“Straight Up Steve Austin” on USA Network immediately Raw drew a 0.4 rating to land in the top ten, at no. 10, in that key cable demo rankings for Monday night with 1.078 million viewers. It was down from the 0.5 demo rating and 1.211 million viewers last week for the premiere. The third hour lead-in audience from Raw was down 173,000 and Austin’s audience was down 133,000.
Steve Austin’s show is really good. Episode 1 gave me a whole new respect for Rob Riggle as a Marine Corps veteran and not just some unfunny jack@ss from SNL & Shark Week.