Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/08/wwe-raw-drops-9-against-the-nfl-and-mlb-playoffs/
Photo courtesy: WWE
Following the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view and going against Monday Night Football and the Major League Baseball playoffs, WWE Raw fell 9% from its season premiere last week.
The three-hour built around an angle involving boxer Tyson Fury averaged 2,334,000 viewers on the USA Network. Among people 18-49, Raw did a 0.75 for the night and was down from a 0.89 last week.
The show opened with 2.443 million viewers, which was a good start and their second-best opening hour since Monday Night Football returned last month. The audience fell 4.6% to 2.330 million in the second hour and saw an additional drop of 4.3% in the final hour which ended with the angle involving Fury and Braun Strowman.
The show faced larger sports competition than usual as the Monday Night Football game between the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns attracted 11,125,000 viewers on ESPN, which was up 6.3% from last week’s game. There were also two Major League Baseball playoff games going against Raw as Los Angeles vs. Washington had 3,611,000 watching on TBS the New York Yankees vs. Minnesota Twins game saw 2,659,000 watching on FS 1.
Despite the competition, it was Raw’s second-best number since Monday Night Football returned five-weeks ago.
Compared to the same week in 2018, Raw was only down 1.5% year-to-year.