WWE News: Raw Ratings hit new all-time low

What's the Story?

2018 has not been kind to Monday Night Raw's ratings, but this week's show has reached a new low.

The December 3 edition of Raw generated the lowest viewership of the year thus far, becoming the new lowest rated episode of all time.

In Case You Didn't Know...

Ronda Rousey and Natalya were going to start the show facing Nia Jax and Tamina in a tag team match, but were ambushed by their opponents and The Riott Squad before the bell rung.

Other key moments from the show were Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins brawling, Drew McIntyre turning on Dolph Ziggler and Rhyno being "fired" by Acting General Manager Baron Corbin.

The Heart of the Matter

Raw averaged 2.29 million viewers - down 83,000 from the last Raw in November on the 26th.

Hour one: 2.262 million

Hour two: 2.368 million

Hour three: 2.196 million

Raw was the fourth-most-watched show on Monday Night Cable beating Love & Hip Hop, but still falling behind NFL-related content.

The second hour of the show scored the highest viewership but quickly plummeted to one of the lowest third hours since WWE made the three-hour change in 2012.

The final hour of Raw saw 196,000 fans abandon the show, but the viewership wasn't that strong to begin with. Despite the overwhelmingly negative opinion of last week's episode, that show started with much higher viewership than this week's show with a difference of 350,000 viewers.

What's Next?

The flagship show has continued to lose viewership every year under the second brand split and the worst may still be in store.

The next episode of Raw will be the Go-Home show for the upcoming TLC pay-per-view, which could mean the show's rating will be even lower given Raw's historically low viewership for go-home episodes.