SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Monday’s episode of WWF Monday Night Raw on USA Network drew a 1.95 rating, in line with the 1.96 the week before, and slightly below the ten week rolling average headed into the week of 2.00. The hourly ratings were closer to normal, after some steep and alarming drop-offs the last two weeks.
This week the first hour drew 2.935 million and dropped to 2.630 million by the third hour, a dropoff of 305,000 from the first to the third. That’s well down from the dropoff the last two weeks of 585,00 and 775,000, but still above the 245,000 average dropoff for the year.
This week’s rating matched last year’s rating the same week.
Keller’s Analysis: The third hour was anchored by Miz vs. Braun Strowman at the start and Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose defending the tag team titles against Sheamus & Cesaro as the main event, so those two well-hyped matches likely helped keep viewers tuned in more than usual. They went up against the Lions-Packers game on ESPN, which is a pretty strong divisional match-up.
The Lions Packers game would have been a strong match up if Rodgers was not out for the season. The game was never close at any point and I would think it had some impact on Raw’s rating, but very minimal compared to a better match up.
The fact is, the show is just not very good. Raw’s 3 hours generally are boring. There is not enough going on to fill a 3 hour show. Too much talking, too many dumb skits. There probably is enough wrestling to fill a two hour show. This will be a hard sell for Mcmahon when tv contract time comes up. Ratings below a 2? Reruns of Cops do almost as well as that on some nights.