Every week, I read how low the ratings are for raw or smackdown and how this is bad news for WWE yet they are doing between a 1.5 and 2.5 every week.
So when I compare this to most network shows, those ratings are pretty high in today’s tv landscape.
Raw beats pretty much every CW shows in the ratings, but not just that, hpthey also beat a lot of shows from other big network and when you say that the most popular shows like the NFL and big bang theory do between 6 and 4 point ratings. I feel like WWE is doing pretty well considering.
The thing is, tv ratings went down all over the board because of streaming services like Netflix, so to advertisers, they don’t look at ratings the same way they would in the 90’s early 2000. A 2.0 ratings is a pretty high what a 6.0 was 15 years ago, so it pretty high, but people that don’t follow this for a living might not get that and will report how low the ratings are, which isn’t the case.
You got it. Ratings are important, but comparing ratings across different eras is worthless. It’s like comparing the price of gas now vs. 20 years ago without adjusting for inflation. As far as I know, there’s no reliable, widely accepted way to “adjust for inflation (Netflix, DVR, etc.)” with TV ratings.
Ratings are important, but they’re not the main driving factor that they were 10-20 years ago.
Ratings matter to advertisers & traditional tv/cable networks, but much like sports have been changed by analytics & advanced metrics, so has the tv industry been changed by the rise of new media & streaming platforms.
I don’t disagree on comparing audience levels to 2001, but I don’t see many people making those comparisons. Often, comparisons are from 6-12 months when the streaming argument and divided eyeballs theory is out the window.
Raw and SD are going to be weighed against their cable competition and to that end, they are strong cable properties.
That said, next year SmackDown is no longer a cable property but a network one and the expectations will be higher than on USA. Viewership will be extremely important during that first year on Fox. If they were to be moved to FS1, it’s a huge deal and audience levels would be a huge determining factor in that decision.
If it’s true that Smackdown is moving on friday when they move to fox, then they need to stick around 1 and 2 ratings on a regular bases to please Fox because right now that’S around what most shows on all four big network are doing on a friday night. The friday night slot as been call the death slot for years on network tv. They normally put show that might not have a strong following because they know that their not a lot of peoples that stay in on friday night to watch tv. So it will probably depend how many peoples PVR the show if it’S a success or not.
