SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
The May 1 edition of Raw drew a 1.99 rating, the first sub-2.00 rating since Dec. 26. Dec. 12 was the last episode that wasn’t considered a “holiday” edition to drop below 2.00.
The 1.99 is below the 2.32 April average and the 2.22 average for 2017 so far. The ten week rolling average headed into this week was 2.25.
One year ago, Raw drew a 2.35. The average for 2016 this far into the year was 2.54 compared to this year’s average so far of 2.22.
Keller’s Analysis: The stat that leaps out is the drop-off from the first to the third hour. The first hour drew a 2.92 million viewers, the second hour 3.04 million viewers, and the third hour 2.65 million viewers. The first-to-third hour drop-off was 275,000, well above the 181,000 average of the last ten weeks. That’s not a great sign as far as where Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and The Miz stand in terms of being main event TV match draws, but it’s just one week, and that’s just one match in the third hour.
It was a great main event, but the rest of the show was boring as could be – not shocking at all. The only thing shocking was that they wasted such a great main event on an awful show people tuned out of in mass. Maybe WWE should fire like 99% of its writers, have one guy do the basic outlines of the show, and let the wrestlers actually talk like normal people instead of sounding like scripted f-grade Hollywood douchebags.
It’s not the writers. McMahon has designed Raw to appeal not to those looking for work-rate or even good stories, but rather for “events”, special appearances, stunts, and the like.
It was a very good Raw, too.
Probably hurt by last week’s poor show to some extent. I wonder if the third hour drop-off was fueled by WWE effectively telling the audience midway through the show “Roman, Braun and Brock are not showing up tonight”. One suspects that news of the good main event match will help keep this week’s ratings up a bit even if Raw is once again up against NBA playoff matches.
Cut that third hour.