WWE RAW breaks record low rating
Going against the NBA playoffs and with a taped show, Raw last night broke a new record for the least watched episode on its regular night outside of football season with 3.32 million viewers.
The show fell victim to a big third hour drop which led to it falling below the previous low mark set on 2/1 at 3.37 million viewers.
Dancing with the Stars, featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant, also had a big drop to 10.95 million viewers.
There were a number of shows during football season last year, as well as the 1/11 show against the college football championship game, that did lower numbers than Raw.
Raw was still the second highest rated show on cable, beating the NBA game on TBS that went head-to-head and did 3.21 million viewers, but falling behind the Warriors-Rockets late game that did 4.42 million viewers.
Keep in mind that the actual viewers of both games would be significantly higher if you included the local market broadcasts of each game.
The seasonal pattern of people tuning in late that comes after Daylight Savings time was in effect, but the pattern that the third hour doesn’t drop as much during that season was not. The first two hours were in the same range as last week, so the record low was entirely due to the big third hour drop.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.49 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.54 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.98 million viewers
Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.