SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
This week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw (5/27) drew a 1.61 rating. That’s a drop from last week’s 1.73 and the second lowest rating of the year and second-lowest non-holiday rating for the show. Raw drew a 1.56 on Apr. 29. The next week, the Wildcard Rule was instituted. Ratings built up from there to a 1.63, 1.68, and 1.73 last week before this drop.
One year ago, Raw drew a 1.70 rating and two years ago it drew a 1.75 rating. The rating for Memorial Day the last two years did drop even more than this week’s episode. Last year the Memorial Day rating was down 0.36 from the prior four weeks. Two years ago, the rating was down 0.23 from the prior four weeks. This week the drop was only 0.04 down from the prior four weeks.
Raw has averaged a 1.81 this year, but averaged just a 1.66 in May, though May is a soft month for ratings compared to the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania stretch. The Superstar Shake-up and Wildcard Rule and Mick Foley “new title belt” teaser helped build ratings.
Raw drew 0.8, 0.7, and 0.7 ratings for each hour in the core 18-49 demographic, which was good for the top three spots in cable TV ratings on Monday night. No other shows on cable on Memorial Day drew more than 2 million viewers, and all three hours of Raw drew more than 2 million viewers.
The first hour drew 2.265 million, the second hour 2.254 million, and the third hour 2.051 million. The first-to-third drop-off was only 214,000, well below average. The average drop-off the last four weeks was 444,000.
Ratings did not build up to anything. Fox won’t keep this on the air with a 1 rating. The glory of days of wrestling saw two shows with 6 ratings quite often. AEW is on the horizon. Good times are coming.