SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last night’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw drew a 1.97 rating, up from last week’s 1.93, right in line with the range of ratings the previous four weeks. It beat last year’s rating of 1.93 by 0.04.
The hourly viewership following a typical pattern, with a strong first hour (3.008 million) with a similar second hour viewership (2.984 million) followed by a bigger dropoff in the third hour (2.711 million). The dropoff from the first to the third hour was 297,000, which is more than the yearly average of 222,000, but below the dropoff average of the prior five weeks of 422,000. It was the smallest dropoff since the Aug. 28 episode.
The ten-week rolling average for Raw is 2.11, thanks to a surge late summer around Summerslam.
Keller’s Analysis: No surprises here, but it’s a good sign for a show built around Enzo in the main event that the dropoff for the third hour was less than usual lately, although mitigated by it being more than the yearly average. They’re holding steady against NFL Monday Night Football on ESPN with ratings similar to last year. Raw averaged a 1.93 rating the last five weeks compared to 1.89 last year during the first five weeks of the fall season.
I wouldn’t read too much into the ratings as the football ratings are down due to the boycott and I would imagine some people tuned in RAW again. Once the NFL decides how to better handle the protests, that audience is shifting back to football or at least a good portion of it.