WWE News: Monday Night Raw viewership down heading into TLC

What’s the story?

Monday Night Raw took a big hit in viewership this week averaging 2.683 million viewers; down 188,000 from last week’s show which averaged 2.871 million.

In case you didn’t know...

The first hour of Raw kicked off with The Shield coming to the ring in their iconic gear as well and a cruiserweight match between Jack Gallagher and Cedric Alexander.

The second hour of Raw featured Sasha Banks taking on Alicia Fox and The Shield defending their Raw Tag Team Championships against Cesaro and Sheamus.

The final hour of Raw featured a tag team match between Emma and Alexa Bliss against Mickie James and Bayley and the main event Steel Cage match between Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns.

The heart of the matter

WWE’s viewership fluctuates the most when pitted against Monday Night Football, but the combination of both football and baseball games airing during the first hour of Raw may have impacted the flagship show’s viewership more than usual. The following is the hourly breakdown for the Oct. 16 edition of Raw.

Hour one: 2.731 million

Hour two: 2.728 million

Hour three: 2.606 million

There was a minimal drop from hour one to hour two, but the most significant drop occurred in hour three with approximately 122,000 fans tuning out for the main event. Compared to last week’s episode which featured Enzo and Kalisto in the main event, the drop in the third hour yielded similar results with 123,000 fans tuning out for the October 9 episode.

Raw not only had a low viewership but was revealed to have very low attendance with picture arising of half the arena being tarped off.

What’s next?

The trend with ratings for WWE programming is that they decrease for Go-Home shows, but increase for the post-pay-per-view show.

Next week’s Raw will also have to compete with the football game between the Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles as well as several NBA games which could affect the expected increase in the viewership.

Author’s Take

Viewership is down for this week, but many fans considered the show to be a solid episode of Raw so they may not feel the viewership reflects the quality of the show.

We are all excited for TLC scheduled for this weekend and let's see what this pay-per-view has in store for all the fans.

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