Steve Austin’s performance as the host of “WWE Tough Enough” has earned rave reviews, but week two of the USA Network reality series was still unable to match its premiere week ratings.
Though a slight drop-off was expected–after all, instead of leading out of a post-WrestleMania episode of RAW that garnered an average viewership of 5.78 million viewers with a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating for its latter 75 minutes, this week’s show led into the first hour of RAW. But given how well the Hall of Fame special performed at 8PM last week (1.3 A18-49 rating with 3.36 million viewers) and the positive feeback to the “TE” premiere, there was still hope the reality show would hold up well.
Ultimately, however, that did not pan out. “Tough Enough” fell from a 1.5 adults 18-49 rating to a 0.9 rating in the demo, according to ratings data revealed by TVBill. Viewership was down from 3.33 million to 2.785 million, while the cable coverage rating (the “rating” on wrestling websites that have not adapted to recognize the prominence of the adults 18-49 demo) fell to a 1.8.
While the performance is still solid for a cable reality series, it is worth noting that the network’s re-runs of “NCIS” performed very well in the slot (typically scoring a higher household rating), so standards are quite high for the “Tough Enough” revival.