The combination of a poor show, Labor Day, and college football led the Monday, September 5th edition of WWE Raw to fall to 3.06 million viewers on Monday night.
The ratings pattern is noteworthy because the first hour did well, coming off the curiosity from the HHH return and title change. But the second hour, almost always the highest rated hour during the summer, fell greatly when people realized there was going to be no significant follow up, nor any explanation for the previous week’s finish that they were curious about.
The third hour, fell off a cliff with 30 of the worst minutes of Raw in recent memory until the Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn match, was way down.
– 8 PM: 3.35 million viewers
– 9 PM: 3.07 million viewers
– 10 PM: 2.79 million viewers
The Ole Miss vs. Florida State college football game that went head-to-head with Raw did 8.35 million viewers, which is strong competition, but well below what Raw will be facing starting this coming Monday from the NFL.
Having such a bad show the week before the NFL opens on Monday probably will hurt matters, and unless there is a hotshot angle or HHH on to explain what happened, Raw is likely to have another bad night.
The first to third hour drop hit both men and women with 20 percent of the women 18-49 watching the first hour and 15 percent of the men 18-49 having turned the show off. 28 percent of female teenagers did the same.
Raw was fifth on cable for the night.
Here’s Paul Fontaine’s look at the last 10 weeks of Raw ratings with comparisions to the last four years: