WWE RAW experiences giant drop in hour three, finishes #9 on cable

A terrible third hour led to WWE RAW posting one of its lowest figures of the year this week fall under 1.7 million viewers.

Photo courtesy: WWE

A terrible third hour led to WWE RAW posting one of its lowest figures of the year this week fall under 1.7 million viewers.

The three-hour show averaged 1,656,000 viewers and a 0.48 in the 18-49 demographic. The figures represented declines of 4.4 percent in viewers and 6 percent in the demo as the show finished ninth among all cable programs.

It was RAW’s fourth-lowest viewership figure of 2020 and its lowest demo rating since September 7th.

The show collapsed in hour three with a 17.7 percent drop from the first hour to the third.

RAW began with 1,767,000 viewers and stayed steady with 1,747,000 viewers in hour two. The collapse saw RAW fall to 1,455,000 viewers in the final hour. The show was headlined by an impromptu handicap match with Drew McIntyre vs. The Miz & John Morrison that was made earlier in the evening.

Of the modern era data available, the previous record low viewership for an hour of RAW was 1,463,000 viewers in hour three of the July 27th episode this past summer, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The only significant drop in the key demos was with women as 12-34s dropped 20 percent and 18-49s were down by 8 percent this week. The adult 18-34 audience was up 12.5 percent this week and males 12-34 improved by 10 percent.

In the first to third-hour declines, adults over 50 plummeted in the final hour by 18.5 percent followed by men 18-49 declining 17 percent, and women 12-34 dropped 15 percent.

One strange occurrence was among women 18-49 that started at a 0.33, jumped to a 0.40 in the second hour, and then dropped back down to 0.34 in the last hour.

RAW’s chief competition on Monday was the Monday Night Football game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Giants that averaged 11,703,000 viewers on ESPN.

Here is a look at the key demos and comparisons from hour one to hour three:

Source: Showbuzz Daily

ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.48 (-6 percent)
Hour 1-3: -14 percent

FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.34 (-8 percent)
Hour 1-3: -9 percent

MALES 18-49
This week: 0.62 (-3 percent)
Hour 1-3: -17 percent

ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.27 (+12.5 percent)
Hour 1-3: -14 percent

FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.20 (+12.5 percent)
Hour 1-3: -15 percent

MALES 12-34
This week: 0.33 (+10 percent)
Hour 1-3: -9 percent

ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.58 (-9 percent)
Hour 1-3: -13 percent

ADULTS 50+
This week: 0.79 (-1.25 percent)
Hour 1-3: -18.5 percent

About John Pollock 5526 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.