Raw did one of its lowest numbers in history on Monday night on the USA Network.
The three-hour show averaged 2,158,000 viewers, which is down 9% from last week and down 29% from this week in 2018.
The first hour averaged 2,336,000 viewers and fell to 2,241,000 in the second hour before a larger drop in the final hour with 1,898,000 viewers leading up to the show-closing contract signing. Going into the show, they only advertised that the Raw participants at Money in the Bank would be revealed.
The show went against Game 2 of the Toronto Raptors vs. Philadelphia 76ers series that did 3,829,000 viewers on TNT and the start of the Portland vs. Denver game for the final 25 minutes of Raw.
This week’s average would be lower than any Raw number from 2018 except for the episodes on Christmas and New Year’s Eve that did 1.775 and 1.968 million viewers respectively.
Last year’s show on April 30, 2018, did 3.060 million, which was coming off the Greatest Royal Rumble event that weekend.
and yet Corbin wasn’t in the main event this week in fact they put him in the opening segment just to get rid of his segment. So let face it, if a contract signing between the 2 of the most popular guy in the company can’t help the ratings, nothing will.
A show with Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch as their top stars is losing viewers? Shocking.
Rasslin is dying across the board…I doubt AEW first TV show will even break a million viewers.
Let’s face it…you can’t bring in new fans because the current ones drive them away.
The only time non WWE things trend are the embarrassing things like the dick flip and tampon spot.
And the current fans don’t even seem to be fans…they just pine for the past and live in nostalgia…they’re are as toxic as Star Wars fans…what are the most popular porcasts out there? The ones that review old shit…nothing but old shit.
When they’re scripted to talk like children people lose interest in them.
I’ll take that bet. And just because WWE sucks doesn’t mean the whole industry is dying.
That, or it could be the fact that no one wants to invest three hours every Monday, two hours every Tuesday and a billion more hours every month in shows that make no sense and don’t lead to anything. The booking has sucked for years now and no one is a star. WWE has no one to blame but themselves.
I grew up in NY and been watching wwe tv weekly since the 80s. I have a super high tolerance for bad wrestling programming.
But they ended me with the five hours of TV every week and 800 PPVs a year. I’d still be watching religiously if there was less content.
It sounds weird but it’s how I’m wired I guess. As soon as three hours of raw became too much, it made sense to ditch it all.
I’m pretty sure they made a calculated decision with the insane amount of programming. They were willing to let fans like me slip away but made up for it with tv deals.
No more small champions - seems pretty clear with Seth and Kofi being champs that they will need to resort to bigger champs. I think Braun or Brock wins it in Saudi and they let Roman take the belt on Smackdown
More comedy routines with Usos and Revivial
More Sami Zayn promos attacking fans for not watching
Celebrities (?Drake) to boos popularity
Again the above is not what I think should happend but rather what I think Vince will do in response to this low rating
Hard to say that the industry is suffering. But WWE can’t seem to do anything interesting. For a bloated talented roster it’s found a way to make everyone feel the exact same.
I’ll use myself as an example: hard time watching Raw with the NBA playoffs in swing and also excited for New Japan shows coming up and will get into BOSJ and very excited for Double or Nothing. Raw just isn’t interesting enough to crack my viewing habits for a full show. I rather watch the products I’m more intrigued in at this moment.
The WWE is basically stuck in the mud. The same people have been in charge for a very long time and have had success. There’s no reason for innovation or change.
I don’t even think having Vince step away would change much. It’s like a runaway train at this point. Maybe if the company was sold we would see something different but who knows, could even get worse.
Turned Raw off after Alexa vs Naomi was announced. Who on earth sticks around for a contract signing? I don’t need to watch it to know someone’s going through a table and from the front page photo on the observer, thats what happened.
Vince does not want anyone to be a bigger draw then the WWE brand. Everyone is equal so no one is special. hard to get behind or care about anyone person if they are treated the same
Vince does not want anyone to be a bigger draw then the WWE brand. Everyone is equal so no one is special. hard to get behind or care about anyone person if they are treated the same
Unless it comes time for the investors call. In that case, 15 missing talents are the reasons for the stock falling. Obviously.
Raw doesn’t have the same “must-see, anything can happen at any moment” feel it did in the late '90s/early 2000’s.
You could easily miss Raw for a week or two now and not be that far behind in following storylines. Raw’s rarely end on a cliffhanger. They front load the show and often have the opening segment be one of the most important now because they know viewers will be lost throughout the 3 hours.
I think we also live in an era where our attention spans are shorter than ever and the thought of watching a 3 hour show where only a few storylines make any sort of advancement seems extremely daunting.
We can go to Netflix, our phones, Youtube, or listen to music while a boring 25 minute tag team match that has 3 commercial breaks spread throughout it is on.
In addition to everything mentioned… The format of RAW (and Smackdown for that matter…) has not changed since literally 20+ years ago. Other than then a higher resolution of image, aspect ratio, and faces on the show - go back to February of 1997, when they went from Monday Night Raw to RAW IS WAR for the first time… and other than a few cosmetic differences, it’s the same show.
Nothing on the show changes. Nothing ever matters. It’s filling time every week, with characters who are simply filling spots. Not a show built around those characters and presenting them in a way that shines a light on strength and hides weaknesses - and tells unique stories for all or even some. It just repeats a handful of stories with different faces filling in the roles.
This show literally has told it’s fans that year after year, history is unimportant. It has told you time after time that characters are interchangeable for each other, and just fill spots. It has told you that your opinions don’t matter. They have literally promised to make changes after “hearing” your complaints - and done absolutely nothing different.
I don’t know what will force a change. Financially they are set. They are a machine, and too big to fail. And maybe the audience doesn’t matter to a degree. And while financially they are absolutely set for the immediate future - I don’t see FOX being too happy that they are spending huge money on a prime time show that in all possibility could be getting under 2 Million viewers a week.
Probably to some extent but I think it has more to do with changing tv habits.
Watching a three hour non sports tv show with commercial breaks feels insane in 2019. Even live sports with extended breaks for commercials are starting to have problems (NBA)
We have all experienced much more enjoyable ways to watch TV. Raw is streets behind.
It will be interesting to see how fox does with the WWE deal. Someone soon is going to take a beating for giving out these huge tv deals.