Monday Night Raw has been considered the “lesser” of the two shows in terms of critical acclaim. However, being the flagship show that it is, it has still managed to get in better ratings than SmackDown Live, at least for the past six weeks post draft. This week was no different. In fact, in terms of viewership, it has been quite a good week for the flagship show of WWE.
This week’s Raw drew 3.413 million viewers. Those numbers are up 3% from 3.315 million viewers last week. The viewership was the best since the June 20th episode scored 3.467 million.
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Raw won the among cable original competing shows, beating Love & Hip-Hop Hollywood (2.253 million viewers). The hourly numbers are as follows:
8 PM: 3.392 million viewers9 PM: 3.438 million viewers10 PM: 3.409 million viewers
Despite the fact that Raw viewers slipped from the second our, it still drew the best ratings in over two months.
SmackDown Live, on the other hand, is clearly doing something right. They have been considered the better show overall since the draft, beating Raw in acclaim for the 4 out of 6 weeks post draft. SmackDown Live’s viewership totals rose to their highest level since the show broke 3 million in its Tuesday night debut, which was the draft episode. Viewership is also up by 4% from last week. The following is the viewership number trend since the draft:
July 27 - 2,743,000August 2 - 2,681,000August 9 - 2,455,000August 16 - 2,471,000August 23 - 2,714,000August 30 - 2,835,000
Smackdown Live had the second highest viewership, only behind The Have and Have Nots.
Perhaps one of the biggest draw’s of last night’s SmackDown Live was the anticipation of what the follow-up to the Bryan-Miz Talking Smack segment in which Miz cut what was considered the best promo of his life. It was addressed on SmackDown Live, but many felt that it didn't live up to expectations. However, it has undoubtedly added a completely new side to The Miz and also has helped to elevate the Intercontinental Championship, which he has held for nearly 5 months now. Daniel Bryan issued an apology to The Miz on the latest Talking Smack and also said that he would be challenging Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship at Backlash. At the rate it is going currently, don’t be surprised to see SmackDown Live overtake Raw in ratings very soon
