RAW Viewership Keeps Going Down, Down, Down

After last week’s terrible viewership numbers, Monday Night RAW’s ratings are even lower since Monday Night Football has returned.

According to Showbuzz Daily, the September 12 episode of Monday Night RAW drew 2.69 million viewers. Continuing the trend of RAW viewership declining heavily as the show progressed, the first hour drew 2.833 million viewers (0.95 rating in 18-49 demographic), the second hour drew 2.717 million viewers (0.93 rating) and the final hour drew 2.520 million viewers (0.86 rating). As a comparison, last week’s worst hour (2.792 million viewers) still outdrew this week’s second and third hour.

WWE’s Red brand had been on a downward spiral in the past couple of weeks, averaging around 3.241 million viewers, but this week was a new low for RAW since the WWE Draft earlier this summer. This week’s viewership is down 14% from last week’s 3.069 million viewers and down almost 27% since the August 29 episode of RAW.

Now RAW has to contend with Monday Night Football, which had always been a factor for a drop in viewership around this time of the year. The Pittsburgh Steelers-Washington Redskins game drew a 4.76 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 12.961 million viewers while the second MNF game between the Los Angeles Rams vs. San Francisco 49ers had a 4.20 rating and drew 10.252 million viewers.

This week’s episode of RAW featured a #1 contender’s triple threat match between Sasha Banks, Bayley and Dana Brooke. Other big matches also included Sheamus against Cesaro in match #5 of their best of 7 series, as well as WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens going up against Roman Reigns in a non-title match. Had Reigns won the match, he would be inserted into the Universal title match between Owens and Seth Rollins, turning it into a triple threat match.

RAW was #6 on cable for the night in viewership, behind Monday Night Football, SportsCenter, Major Crimes, The O’Reilly Factor, and The Kelly File. They were #5 in the 18-49 demographic, behind the Monday Night Football, SportsCenter and Love & Hip-Hop.