WWE Raw ratings down against network season premieres, football
Raw last night averaged 2.21 million viewers, down three percent from the 2.27 million viewers of the prior week’s show.
Even with loading up the third hour with a number one contender’s match with Rey Mysterio vs. AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Robert Roode vs. Ricochet and doing a rematch of the Clash of Champions main event of Seth Rollins vs. Braun Strowman, it was unable to prevent the usual third hour drop, as hour one to hour three fell 13.8 percent, which is normal for the show.
It was a steady drop this week. Raw was ninth on cable for the night, trailing two NFL-related shows, the SportsCenter episode after football, a TLC show, and the regular FOX News and MSNBC news programming that often beats Raw.
The year-to-year drop was six percent, much lower than usual, but last year’s Raw during this week set the modern record low at the time of 2.35 million viewers, although that has been broken a number of times since.
The Washington vs. Chicago NFL game did 10.33 million viewers to lead the night.
It was the eighth smallest audience for Raw of the modern era, with the other seven shows all having taken place since December, two of which were Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, which shouldn’t count.
The major networks have season premieres this week, including 9-1-1 on FOX last night, the show Ronda Rousey has a recurring role in.
The three hours for Raw were:
- 8 p.m. 2.37 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 2.21 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 2.04 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.