By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE Raw TV Ratings

-- May 4: Last week's Raw was not rock bottom in the TV ratings. Monday's Raw fell to another year-low TV rating, this time a 2.55 rating.

Last week's show drew a 2.68 rating, down one full rating point from the post-WrestleMania episode one month ago.

The 2.55 rating for Monday's show is the lowest non-holiday season rating in two-and-a-half years dating back to the same rating on December 3, 2012 against a big audience for Monday Night Football.

Similarly, Monday's show was against NBA's top star, LeBron James, in the NBA Playoffs, plus one more NBA Playoffs game, an NHL Playoffs game, and an MLB game that out-drew Raw in social media activity.

- Raw averaged 3.573 million viewers, down five percent from last week's audience.

It was the fewest viewers of the year and fewest for a non-holiday episode of Raw since December 2, 2013.

Hourly Break Down: 3.422 million first hour viewers vs. LeBron, 3.709 million second hour viewers, and customary decline to 3.588 million third hour viewers (nearly identical to last week's third hour audience).

Since WrestleMania, the third hour has not fared well for WWE...

- 3/30: 5.267 million 3H viewers (down 5.9% from 2H)
- 4/6: 3.552 million 3H viewers (down 12.1% from 2H)
- 4/13: 3.525 million 3H viewers (down 6.9% from 2H)
- 4/20: 3.873 million 3H viewers (down 6.4% from 2H)
- 4/27: 3.590 million 3H viewers (down 6.9% from 2H)
- 5/4: 3.588 million 3H viewers (down 3.3% from 2H)

Caldwell's Analysis: This is the effect of consecutive average-to-poor Raw TV episodes. Monday's show was a vast improvement from the previous post-Mania episodes, but stringing together three, four, five "eh" episodes in a row will drive people away. Perhaps the audience comes back next week after a better effort this week, but centering Raw on The Authority B-Team bickering and having the same argument every week without a strong babyface going against the group was eventually going to lead to a new rock bottom.

***

WWE Raw Scoresheet

- Avg. Rating: 2.90 rating
- Avg. Viewers: 4.022 million
- 2015 High: 3.68 rating / 5.363 million viewers (3/30 post-WM31)
- 2015 Rating Low: 2.55 rating (5/4)
- 2015 Viewers Low: 3.573 million viewers (5/4)
- Avg. 2H to 3H Decline: -5.6 percent

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