Monday’s Raw scored a 2.50 rating, down 15 percent from a season-high 2.93 rating last week. Raw fell hard, falling into the same range as the middle of March when Raw was struggling on the Road to WrestleMania.
As usual, the third hour fell off from the second hour, which was the peak hour of the show. The most concerning hour, though, was the first hour.
– First Hour: 3.474 million viewers (down about 800,000 viewers from last week’s 1H)
– Second Hour: 3.687 million viewers (down about 490,000 viewers from last week’s 2H)
– Third Hour: 3.427 million viewers (down about 390,000 viewers from last week’s 3H)
It looks like the key male demo came back last week, evaluated post-Mania happenings, and decided to go back into hiding this week. That’s not a good sign for advertisers and USA Network. There has been so much long-term damage done to the Raw product in the Three-Hour Raw environment that it’s going to take time for viewers to come back. But, two key factors that have to be addressed is the rejection of Roman Reigns as top champion and the “interim tag” on Shane McMahon making it unclear if he’s going to stick around to keep Raw fresh. WrestleMania 32 was a business success, but there is no evidence of that translating to Raw (or Smackdown).
Thanks to James Caldwell of PWTorch
