By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Last night's episode of WWE Raw averaged a 3.10 rating, which was 10.1 percent from the previous week's rating and down 16.3 percent from the rating on October 26.

The show drew the lowest rating of 2009. The previous low this year was a 3.11 on September 28. It was the lowest overall rating since a 3.01 rating on December 8, 2008.

The show averaged more viewers in the first hour than in the second hour, reflecting a weak hook for the second hour of the show. WWE was advertising a less-than-compelling Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry match and a repeat DX vs. Chris Jericho & Big Show main event.

The second hour averaged 4.06 million viewers, which is the fewest number of viewers for the second hour in well over a year. The last time WWE came this close to the 4.0 million viewer mark for the second hour of a Raw was 4.23 million viewers on October 20, 2008.

The drop from October 26 (two weeks ago) to this week is astounding. The second hour on Oct. 26 averaged 5.75 million viewers compared to only 4.06 million viewers this week. That represents a 29.4 percent drop and a total loss of nearly two million viewers in the second hour.

-- FOLLOW-UP STORY: Raw Ratings Break Down

Caldwell's Analysis: Granted, this was a taped show from earlier in the day overseas and the NFL game on ESPN picked up steam in the second half after a slow first half, but these numbers are just plain bad. I double-checked to make sure the numbers we received were accurate for the second hour nearly dropping below 4.0 million viewers because that's unheard of to lose nearly two million viewers in the second hour compared to just two episodes prior. Big picture, WWE is still in the Top Ten of cable TV ratings on a weekly basis, but looking at the week-to-week and 2009 numbers, last night's Raw did not generate positive results. We now introduce what Vince McMahon claimed in the conference call last week that he looks at house show numbers (very strong on the European tour) and TV ratings (very bad this week) as his two barometers for interest in the product. Unfortunately, WWE seemed to mix house shows and TV with last night's product, as the show came across like a run-of-the-mill, walk-through-the-motions episode of Raw culminating with a main event that could have been on any house show during the current European Tour.

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