WWE RAW Ratings Nightmare Continues; Another Major Drop

Panic was indeed warranted after last week’s WWE RAW delivered some of its worst non-holiday viewership totals since 1997.

Things got significantly worse this week.

Monday’s three-hour show dipped to a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating, which is abysmal by the show’s standards. With a viewership average of just 3.50 million, RAW’s audience slipped 10% from last week’s already-scary 3.79 million tally.

Competition from Monday Night Football was expectedly fierce–the high-profile Bears vs. Cowboys game drew a 6.8 rating with 16.62 million viewers–but that is, in itself, not enough of an excuse to warrant such a poor performance from RAW. WWE’s Monday flagship is clearly missing the boat with television viewers, and the three-hour length is not helping matters.

The one positive is that RAW delivered its best adults 18-49 number in the 10PM hour (though viewership still fell from 9PM). That desirable trend was once the norm for RAW, but with viewers clearly tiring from a three-hour broadcast, the final hour had become increasingly vulnerable to audience drop-offs.

Hourly breakdown:
8PM – 1.2 rating, 3.44 million
9PM – 1.2 rating 3.60 million
10PM – 1.3 rating, 3.47 million

Brian Cantor

Brian Cantor is the editor-in-chief for Headline Planet. He has been a leading reporter in the music, movie, television and sporting spaces since 2002. Brian's reporting has been cited by major websites like BuzzFeed, Billboard, the New Yorker and The Fader -- and shared by celebrities like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj. Contact Brian at brian.cantor[at]headlineplanet.com.

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Brian Cantor