Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/27/wwe-raw-stays-steady-week-to-week-despite-third-hour-drop/
Photo courtesy: WWE
Monday’s edition of Raw held steady week-to-week with the show holding the audience for the first two hours but experienced a big drop in the final hour.
The three-hour show averaged 2,527,000 viewers on the USA Network, virtually identical to last week’s figure of 2,534,000.
The show opened with 2.637 million viewers, which is among their highest opening hours since WrestleMania and didn’t have the benefit of following a pay-per-view or being a special show like Raw Reunion. The company promoted that Sasha Banks would be starting off the show and her match against Natalya later in the program.
The audience grew to 2.686 in the second hour, which featured the Tag Turmoil match where Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode became the next contenders for the Raw tag titles. It was the fourth consecutive week where Raw grew from the first hour to the second.
The bad news was a big decline of 15.8% in the third hour with 2.260 million sticking around. The show concluded with a rematch between AJ Styles and Braun Strowman for the United States title.
Since July 8th, there was only one hour that drew less than Monday’s third hour and that was the final hour of the July 29th episode.
The year-to-year drop was 11% compared to this same week in 2018.
The sports competition increases next week with a college football game taking place against Raw and then it’s the return of Monday Night Football on September 9th. Raw will combat the NFL’s return with a show from Madison Square Garden that will feature an appearance by Steve Austin.