Season Premiere episode of WWE RAW sees big fall in viewership and TV ratings amid major competition from NFL
The television ratings and viewership of the post Draft episode of WWE RAW took a big fall even though it was the Season Premiere. According to Showbuzz Daily, the October 19th episode of Monday Night RAW drew in 1.777 million viewers on the USA Network which is down from October 12th's viewership of 1.855 million viewers.
The first hour of RAW drew in 1.806 million viewers, which rose to 1.835 million in the second hour and came down to 1.689 million viewers in the third and final hour.
The TV ratings of this show also fell this week as it scored 0.52 in the key demographic area of 18-49 which is down from last week's 0.57. The reason for the slump in viewership and TV ratings of this week's RAW might be contributed to the fact that it faced major competition from the NFL games.
The NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals on ESPN topped the night on Cable Top 150 with a massive 3.57 rating in the key demo area of 18-49 compared to WWE RAW's rating of 0.52.
Despite such stiff competition, WWE RAW managed to get decent ratings. The increase of viewership in the second hour maybe because of the scheduled championship match between RAW Women's Champion Asuka and Lana.
However, the match went nowhere as it got replaced with a women's four-way tag-team match instead after Women's Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax attacked both Asuka and Lana during their match. The episode was filled with such haphazard matches from the very beginning of the show.
What went down on this week's RAW?
This week's episode started with Alexa Bliss and 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt getting confronted by RETRIBUTION. The group led by Mustafa Ali couldn't do any damage as both Wyatt and Bliss disappeared from the ring when the lights went out.
RETRIBUTION then had their scheduled eight-man tag match against The Hurt Business but ended up losing when T-Bar tapped out to Bobby Lashley's Hurt Lock. After the match, The Fiend appeared and wiped out most of RETRIBUTION save for Mustafa Ali.
The show ended with WWE Champion Drew McIntyre confronting his Hell in a Cell opponent Randy Orton who delivered his promos from inside the safety of the cell structure. But, McIntyre packed a surprise as he had bolt-cutters stashed by to cut the chainlinks and enter the structure as the show went off the air.