WWE - Buys, Ratings - The RATINGs WAR II

[Saddlerrad]

VS

Concept stolen from another forum that I know will be appreciated by everyone in this section.

Brand vs Brand weekly ratings, buys and statistics will go in this thread.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Start with the Raw before the Draft/Split.. 2 weeks ago tonight..

Pre-draft interview with Dave Meltzer..some point on the Draft/Brand Split.

-WWE needs to get ratings UP on Raw and Smackdown just to *maintain* the current TV rights deal they have with NBC Universal

-The only other serious source of revenue WWE can make is Network subscriptions

-If WWE doesn't substantially increase Network subscriptions by end of 2016, the 4th financial quarter, then the Brand Split was officially a failure

-WWE is spending more money to produce Smackdown Live but is not getting more money from USA to produce it

-WWE's social media numbers are worthless otherwise they would have translated to an increase in live show attendance

-Roman hasn't helped the box office, but neither has Dean or Seth. Cena did a bit. No one helps the box office except the usual Wrestlemania band aids

-Meltz could see Vince thinking the rub of beating Brock should go to Big Cass because he's tall, blond and good looking

-Vince has lost his sense for the art of the finish. Most of the 50/50 booking is done because they need to fill so much time. Then when guys aren't over because they're not protected, its a self fulfilling prophecy in the eyes of management why a guy is not over

- The casual fans abandoned the product because WWE kept inundating them with product - especially during the Brand Split which had Raw, SD and Two PPVs a month. Now WWE will have 8 hours of TV on Sunday thru Tuesday every two weeks and most casual fans are not going to choose all of that over following other sports and having other interests.

-Vince's booking was good at playing to the casual fans but they're not around anymore. The only people who are still following the show are the most diehard WWE fans who want the product to cater to them. Vince and the fans are at odds over what the direction of the show should be.



RAW RATING - MONDAY 18TH JULY
H1-3.204M
H2-3.236M
H3-2.960M
3H-3.133M

(Pretty awful considering there was a title match advertised for the main event - just goes to show you can't fill a 3rd hour, regardless, the audience isn't interested)


W/C Monday 18th July, the show drew 3.53 million viewers for all three hours, down from last week's 3.64 million. Considering this was the go home show to the Battleground pay-per-view this weekend, this will surely cause further head shaking in Stamford.

The good news, at least, is the hourly breakdown showed growth all throughout the evening:

Hour one: 3.43 million
Hour two: 3.51 million
Hour three: 3.64 million

It's been a month now since Raw drew over 4 million viewers for a single show and it's only happened twice since the night after WrestleMania 31. Put simply, fans just aren't as interested in the product.



7/18 WWE Raw TV Ratings – Raw falls despite pre-Draft hype

By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE Raw got a strong social media bump on Monday night. But, the TV rating was down and viewership was flat compared to last week.

WWE Raw TV Ratings Tracking

July 18: The final WWE Raw before the Draft scored a 2.22 TV rating, down three percent from a 2.28 rating last week.

The overall rating was down, but key demographic ratings improved slightly from last week.

Included was males 18-34 rebounding to a five-week high point.

– Raw’s three hours averaged 3.133 million viewers, down one percent (about 37,000 viewers) from last week’s audience of 3.170 million viewers.

Raw started stronger than last week, matched last week’s second hour viewership, but fell off in the third hour. This was despite a WWE Title match, but Raw’s third hour was opposed by the peak of the Republican National Convention coverage, which drew more than 22 million viewers across all TV outlets.

First Hour: 3.204 million viewers
Second Hour: 3.236 million viewers
Third Hour: 2.960 million viewers (-8.5%)

This continued Raw’s streak of 19 consecutive weeks where the third hour declined from the second hour.

Caldwell’s Analysis: Disappointing rating for a show with the GMs revealed, final Raw before the Draft, and WWE Title match in the main event. The effect of three-hour Raws continues to hurt the overall show now four years into the experiment. Will things change after the Draft? We’ll see. But, there does not appear to be ratings momentum heading into next week. WWE does benefit from having a PPV on Sunday leading into next Monday’s Raw to perhaps boost interest again, like the night after Money in the Bank when Dean Ambrose won the WWE Title.

http://www.pwtorch.com/site/2016/07/...re-draft-hype/

 

[Saddlerrad]

SMACKDOWN Tuesday 19th July - DRAFT EPISODE!

3.17 million - Higher than Raw and highest for SmackDown since February 7th, 2014:
http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/article...7-19-2016.html

SmackDown viewership
(7/21) vs Previous week (7/14)

3.170m Vs 2.068m
(+1.002m/+53.29%)

First time in many years that SD has beaten RAW in viewership(maybe since the ruthless aggression era). There are ways to track ratings but viewership figures for all those SD episodes are elusive to track down and compare.




WWE SmackDown Viewership For The Draft

Source: Showbuzz Daily

Last night's live WWE SmackDown, featuring the WWE Draft and the first show since moving to Tuesday nights, drew 3.170 million viewers. This is up from last week's show, which drew 2.068 million viewers.

SmackDown was #6 for the night in viewership, due to the various mainstream news programs covering the Republican National Convention.
SmackDown came in at #1 for the night in the 18-49 demographic.

http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...for-the-draft/



7/19 Live Smackdown/WWE Draft Social Media activity – Surge to near-WrestleMania level

With 59 WWE Draft picks to comment on, the new Raw and Smackdown rosters to evaluate, and the Live Smackdown premiere to discuss on Tuesday night, there was a huge surge in social media activity for Smackdown.

WWE Smackdown Social Media Tracking

July 19: Smackdown registered social media activity just below the level of post-WrestleMania Raw, according to Nielsen’s Twitter TV Ratings.

Smackdown generated 279,000 tweets from 49,000 unique authors, for a rate of 5.7 tweets per person.

By comparison, last week’s final Thursday Night Smackdown airing drew 42,000 tweets from 16,000 unique authors for a rate of 2.6 tweets per person.

Overall on the night, Smackdown ranked #2 in social media activity behind TV-wide coverage of the Republican National Convention.

– Going back one night to Monday’s Raw leading into the Draft, the July 18 Raw generated 176,000 tweets from 45,000 unique authors.

So, the number of people tweeting about Raw and Smackdown was very close, but Smackdown generated 100,000 more tweets.

Once the dust settles from the Draft and Battleground, the real comparisons can begin with live Raws and Smackdowns side-by-side on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

2016’s Top 5 WWE Social Media Shows (non-PPV)

Feb. 8 – D-Bryan Retirement: 343,000 tweets / 83,000 uniques
Apr. 4 – Post-Mania Raw: 316,000 tweets / 56,000 uniques
Feb. 22 – Shane McMahon Return: 286,000 tweets / 64,000 uniques
Jul. 19 – Draft/Live SD Premiere: 279,000 tweets / 49,000 uniques
Jan. 25 – Post-Rumble Raw: 243,000 tweets / 54,000 uniques

http://www.pwtorch.com/site/2016/07/...lemania-level/




OVERALL - (Smackdown up an entire 1m viewers from the week before for the Draft Episode - very good rating)

 

[Christian Slater]

Great thread idea. I will help keep it up.

 

[Saddlerrad]

RAW - MONDAY 25TH JULY

H1-3.412M
H2-3.350M
H3-3.254M
3H-3.339M

H2 Vs H1 (-1.82%/-0.062M)
H3 Vs H2 (-2.87%/-0.096M)
H3 Vs H1 (-4.63%/-0.158M)
7/25/16 Vs 7/18/16 (+6.58%/+0.206M)

OVERALL - Raw gained 200,000 followers last week compared to the week before.


NEW DRAW?
http://www.wrestlingnewssource.com/n...hip-Increased/
"Monday's WWE Raw, featuring Battleground fallout, the new roster and Finn Balor's debut, drew 3.338 million viewers which was up on the 3.133 million viewers last week.

The first hour drew 3.412 million viewers, second hour 3.350 million viewers and the third and final hour drew 3.254 million viewers."



How Was WWE RAW Viewership With Finn Balor's Debut, Fallout From Battleground And The New Roster?

Source: Showbuzz Daily

Monday's WWE RAW, featuring Battleground fallout, Finn Balor's debut and the first show since the WWE Draft, drew 3.338 million viewers. This is up 6.5% from last week's pre-Draft show, which drew 3.133 million viewers.

For this week's show, the first hour drew 3.412 million viewers, the second hour drew 3.350 million viewers and the final hour drew 3.254 million viewers.
RAW was #12 on cable for the night in viewership in the 18-49 demo, behind various shows covering the Democratic National Convention, and #4 in the 18-49 demographic, behind Love & Hip-Hop and two showings of the DNC coverage on CNN.

http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...n-balor-debut/


OVERALL - Raw gained 200,000 followers - however, that shouldn't get in the way of the fact that it's post PPV and 1 week after a brand split. WWE will need to produce good shows to consistently boost it's weekly Raw rating, especially with 3 hours to fill.

 

[Stevencc]

Could you do something simple like a summary at the bottom saying something like...

RAW 1/1/16 - 2.09 rating
Smackdown - 2/1/16 - 1.89 rating

...so idiots like me can understand it.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Could you do something simple like a summary at the bottom saying something like...

RAW 1/1/16 - 2.09 rating
Smackdown - 2/1/16 - 1.89 rating

...so idiots like me can understand it.

Coming to that mate.

 

[Saddlerrad]

SMACKDOWN - Tuesday 26th JULY

SmackDown viewership
this week(7/26) Vs last week(7/19)

2.743M Vs 3.170M (-0.427M/-13.47%)

Smackdown - Down 400,000 viewers from Draft night - to be expected after a PPV, 3 hours of Raw and no big matches advertised for the programme. This is probably an expected down trend to about where the show will be as normal. Stats below will show that losing 400,000 viewers isn't as bad as it may seem.

EXCLUDING THE DRAFT - This is the highest viewed episode of Smackdown since January 21st 2016

2.743M Vs 2.353M (-0.390M/-14.22%)
0.97D Vs 0.59D

On the left, last night's Rating/Viewers - on the right, the year average so far.

 

[Christian Slater]

I suspect Smackdown will see a significant drop tomorrow, the buzz of the Draft and the first show will have worn off, especially with that lacklustre opener.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Rating for JULY - SO FAR*

Raw 18th July - 3.133m
Raw 25th July - 3.339m (+ 200,000 )

Smackdown 19th July - 3.17m
Smackdown 26th July - 2.743m ( - 400,000 )

 

[Christian Slater]

Predicting Raw will get a 3.1 and Smackdown a 2.4 for the next round.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Oaf should love this thread.

 

[Stevencc]

The number of viewers (i.e 3.5m) is different to the actual tv rating (i.e 2.4) isn't it? It's been a long time since I looked at these numbers but that's how it used to work anyway.

What were the actual ratings for the first post-draft episodes?

Apologies if you've noted them down, I can't see them.

 

[Saddlerrad]

The number of viewers (i.e 3.5m) is different to the actual tv rating (i.e 2.4) isn't it? It's been a long time since I looked at these numbers but that's how it used to work anyway.

What were the actual ratings for the first post-draft episodes?

Apologies if you've noted them down, I can't see them.

I know mate, never quite understand the rating/viewers thing, so it's easier to go on viewers (it's a better measuring stick anyway as ratings are based on age of viewers, competition, other shows going on etc).

 

[Saddlerrad]

RAW - AUGUST 1st 2016**

H1-3.463M
H2-3.399M
H3-3.081M
3H-3.314M

Hour 1 - 3.463 million
* highest since April 18th, 2016
Hour 2 - 3.399 million
* highest since June 20th, 2016
Hour 3 - 3.081 million
Average = 3.31 million

A drop of 24,000 week on week. Hour 3 isn't great, but its about baby steps and the hour 1 number is encouraging.




Yearly Viewership Comparison
8/1/16 Vs 8/3/15

H1-3.463m vs 3.739m
H2-3.399m vs 3.695m
H3-3.081m vs 3.671m
3H-3.314m vs 3.702m (-10.48% / -0.388M)


Still generally 500,000 viewers down on last year (the RAW Ratings have really fallen off a cliff this year due to the atrocious booking)..

 

[Saddlerrad]

Rating for JULY - SO FAR*

Raw 18th July - 3.133m
Raw 25th July - 3.339m (+ 200,000 )
Raw August 1st - 3.315m ( - 24,000 )

Smackdown 19th July - 3.17m
Smackdown 26th July - 2.743m ( - 400,000 )


UPDATED*

 

[Stevencc]

I know mate, never quite understand the rating/viewers thing, so it's easier to go on viewers (it's a better measuring stick anyway as ratings are based on age of viewers, competition, other shows going on etc).

Fair enough mate - I don't quite know the difference myself!

 

[Saddlerrad]

SMACKDOWN - Tuesday 2nd August 2016

Overall - 2.681m

(Down 60,000 odd to last week, but more importantly almost 400,000 up on most of the year so far and 200,000 up on this time last year)

Not a bad return after last week's pretty awful debut, be interesting after starting strongly this week and the appearance of Lesnar whether ratings may pick back up. After a pretty awful few years, people won't return quickly, but not having a drastic drop off is reasonable going.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Oh shit, describes this weeks Raw Figures... really, really, oh shit.

I'll post more info when I can get on to he Forum properly tomorrow.. but they didn't break 3m viewers throughout the entire show..

The 10th lowest Raw Rating since 1995.

I've seen the olympics being blamed.. which is a fair comment, but the fact the NFL isn't even a rival yet, 2 weeks before the 2nd biggest PPV of the year, after a brand split..

I've seen it mentioned numerous times and I've seen lots of comments from where I get my figures (Another forum) basically saying that Raw won't get a TV deal within 2 years, will go totally Network reliable.

Worrying times for them I'd suggest.

 

[Saddlerrad]

RAW - MONDAY 8TH AUGUST 2016

Hour 1 - 2.950m
Hour 2 - 2.974m
Hour 3 - 2.809m
Show - 2.911m

SAME RAW THIS TIME LAST YEAR...

Year to Year Viewership
8/8/16 vs 8/10/15

H1-2.950m (2016) vs 3.791m (2015)
H2-2.974m (2016) vs 3.947m (2015)
H3-2.809m (2016) vs 3.775m (2015)
3H-2.913m (2016) vs 3.838m (-24.15% / -0.927M)

This episode of RAW lost virtually 1 million viewers on the same episode last year.. much has been the same as throughout this year.









The 10 Lowest WWE RAW ratings since 9/4/95.

12/23/96-----1.5R
12/30/96-----1.6R
10/14/96-----1.8R
7/4/16-----1.87R**
9/25/95-----1.9R
10/28/96-----2.0R
9/23/96-----2.0R
8/12/96-----2.0R
6/13/16-----2.03R
8/8/16-----2.05R **

Highlighted the ones from this year, that's a pretty shocking indictment of where things are currently, most of these all time low ratings are from 95/96 as Raw lost out to WCW each week. The fact that 2, of the all time lowest ratings are from 2016, really is a worry.

EVEN MORE WORRYINGLY..

'As a comparison, the episode of RAW against the first Monday night of the Olympics in 2012 averaged 4.495 million viewers.'





ON A MORE POSITIVE NOTE..

By Dave Meltzer; courtesy of Wrestling Observer.


As it turned out, Raw got killed last night by the Olympics.

The show did 2.90 million viewers, which, with the exception of holiday shows, broke the 19-year record low of 2.95 million viewers set on November 23, 2015.

There was no doubt the Olympics were the culprit, doing 28.86 million viewers on NBC, with secondary coverage on NBC Sports Network doing another 1.56 million viewers. Raw was not hurt nearly as bad in 2012 by the Olympics. The only real difference, since overall Olympic numbers are down.

Four years ago on the first Monday of the Olympics, Raw did 4.50 million viewers and the Olympics did 31.58 million viewers. The big difference is the Olympics draws heavily with women, and with WWE losing so much of the male audience and women not dropping at nearly as high a level, a strong women's appealing show hurt a lot worse now than four years ago.

The show dropped 12 percent from last week. However, Raw was the most watched show on cable beating The O'Reilly Factor that did 2.66 million viewers. It also beat several prime time show including beating ABC's The Mistresses in the third hour and FOX's So You Think You Can Dance head-to-head.

It was a pretty hardcore audience with minimal movement throughout the show, so there was no pattern of people tuning out any more than usual. The real difference in this week's show opened with 2.95 million viewers and last week's show opened with 3.46 million viewers.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.95 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.97 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.81 million viewers








Also read a post on another forum..

Raw will be cancelled or non-renewed (whatever semantics you want to allow for) within 2 years.

Under 3 mils every hour and not even going against football? Only a few weeks from the 2nd biggest PPV of the year in Summer Slam?

This company is dead. We are witnessing the end of a near 25 year era of prime time WWE programming. And it won't come back when it's done? You do have to worry things are heading this way don't you?


Overall - Raw loses 12% viewership on the previous week, 1.6m from this point in 2012 and just over 900,000 viewers on this time last year. That's not a promising trend for the future.

 

[Saddlerrad]

SMACKDOWN - TUEDSAY 9TH AUGUST 2016

2 Hours - 2.455

Down by 230,000 viewers on last weeks episode, but more importantly, up 380,000 on this episode of Smackdown last year. Smackdown still showing a 20% increase in viewership across the board since the brand split, relatively solid figures given what happened to Raw and the olympics being on TV.


Y-Y viewership and demo:
8/9/16 vs 8/13/15

2.455m vs 2.083m (+0.372M / +17.86%)
0.81D vs 0.56D




Overall - Very steady performance in the ratings consdiering the olympic competition and the way Raw completely fell apart.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Rating for 2016 - SO FAR*

Raw 18th July - 3.133m
Raw 25th July - 3.339m (+ 200,000 )
Raw August 1st - 3.315m ( - 24,000 )
Raw August 8th - 2.911m ( - 396,000 )

Smackdown 19th July - 3.17m
Smackdown 26th July - 2.743m ( - 400,000 )
Smackdown August 2nd - 2.681 ( - 62,000 )
Smackown August 9th - 2.455 ( - 231,000 )


UPDATED*

All in all, not a good month or so for WWE as currently - the brand split and the extra expense of live TV time/PPV time is bringing no extra viewership.

 

[Scott Barton]

I am one of those "diehard" WWE fans, i have watched the product each and every week, absolutely everything since about November 1998. I am seeing the rating decline in ratings and reason behind it, is it the WWE have gotten terrible or the increased coverage of it on the internet? I could go on the internet and watch any WWE show really not even including the WWE Network stuff.

Then, we have the fact that if you add in all of WWE's weekly programming (including the stuff on the WWE Network) then you have 9 hours at the minute (including Cruiserweight Classic) and if you include Summerslam being 4 hours (which it will exceed) + 2-Hour pre-show then you have 15 hours of WWE Programming this week alone. Is overexposure the reasoning why the ratings are declining despite a WWE Draft.

We have had 3-hour Monday Night Raw's for over 4 years now, this is 624 hours of Monday Night Raw alone since it went 3 hours back in 2012. This is so much time to give to a product with a limited roster really, how many times have we seen the same match, week in and week out.

Is looking at the ratings the only way to measure success? Definitely not. If you factor in attendances, how much money is being made from merchandise...things like that, you will begin to feel but i think the idea that in 2 years time Raw won't get a network is ludicrous.

 

[Pilgrim Meister]

I am one of those "diehard" WWE fans, i have watched the product each and every week, absolutely everything since about November 1998. I am seeing the rating decline in ratings and reason behind it, is it the WWE have gotten terrible or the increased coverage of it on the internet? I could go on the internet and watch any WWE show really not even including the WWE Network stuff.

Then, we have the fact that if you add in all of WWE's weekly programming (including the stuff on the WWE Network) then you have 9 hours at the minute (including Cruiserweight Classic) and if you include Summerslam being 4 hours (which it will exceed) + 2-Hour pre-show then you have 15 hours of WWE Programming this week alone. Is overexposure the reasoning why the ratings are declining despite a WWE Draft.

We have had 3-hour Monday Night Raw's for over 4 years now, this is 624 hours of Monday Night Raw alone since it went 3 hours back in 2012. This is so much time to give to a product with a limited roster really, how many times have we seen the same match, week in and week out.

Is looking at the ratings the only way to measure success? Definitely not. If you factor in attendances, how much money is being made from merchandise...things like that, you will begin to feel but i think the idea that in 2 years time Raw won't get a network is ludicrous.

It will still get a network, but not USA network and the shows condensed down to 2 hours, with a major drop in revenue.

Personally, they need to go back down to 2 hours per show, with 1 PVP per month, alternating between the two brands.

Less air time should equal better booking and higher ratings due to their being less time to fill

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I always think wee has had 2 major problems over the years. The 3 hours is a real killer, I couldn't be bothered watching 3 hours each week.

The other problem is wee just cannot create effective heels, I think that is why crowds go all smarky or don't care.

The big pops were always created by either a goody good against the odds story, a huge shock or a great heel finally being beaten.

I just havnt seen a great heel in wee for years, how'd you build the big pop without one.

And crowd atmos can be more important than anything, probs the biggest reason TNA couldn't push higher was the tinpot looking/feeling atmos.

And that is a creative problem as all the smaller feds create good heels easily with less to work with

 

[Stevencc]

Heh, wee.

 

[Saddlerrad]

RAW - MONDAY AUGUST 15TH 2016

Hour 1 - 2.879m
Hour 2 - 3.083m
Hour 3 - 2.784m
Entire Show - 2.915m

Year to Year Viewership:
8/15/16 vs 8/17/15

Hour 1 - 2.879m vs 3.649m
Hour 2 - 3.083m vs 3.953m
Hour 3 - 2.784m vs 3.728m

Entire Show - 2.915m (2016) vs 3.777m (2015) (-22.82% / -0.862m)


Better than the week before, although still competing against the olympics.. however, the simple facts are, in the build up to the WWE's 2nd biggest PPV of the year, they are 800,000 viewers down on last years episode respectively.. things are really falling through the floor.


Some will ask, what's the problem?***** Well, iroinically, some of the following information was shared after this episode of Raw.. we are currently in a PG era? Kids are the main focus? A family driven show? In reality..


Dave Meltzer
@davemeltzerWON
Attitude Era - Average Viewership AGE
Average Raw Viewer 24
Nitro viewer 32

TODAY**
Average Raw Viewer 41
Smackdown Viewer 46
TNA & LU in 50s


That's absolutely shocking, it's no wonder ratings are falling. It's a simple equation. Natural fans were born in the attitude era, said fans have stayed loyal to the show over the years but even they are slowly falling away now as the product becomes stale, the big names of the passed are no more, the PG era, a child based programme. That's properly grim reading for the future if WWE can't grab a new generation of fans in, despite having a programme aimed at them. Very grim.




Raw ratings remain low against Olympics coverage
By Dave Meltzer | @davemeltzerWON | Aug 16, 2016 1:29 pm

WWE should be very happy the Olympics are ending this week.

Raw was up very slightly, from 2.90 million viewers last week to 2.91 million viewers this week going against the Olympics. They would be the two lowest non-holiday numbers since 1997.

The bad news is Raw stayed virtually identical while the Olympics number fell from 28.76 million last Monday to 24.27 million last night.

Raw ended up fourth for the night on cable, trailing Rizzoli & Isles and Major Crimes on TNT, and The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News.

The number should rebound strongly next week, coming the day after SummerSlam.

The show did the usual pattern of the late arriving and early leaving audience that peaks in the middle, which will likely change when Daylight Savings time ends.

In the key 18-49 demo, 13 percent of the second hour viewers tuned out for the third hour.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.88 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.08 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.78 million viewers




Overall - A slight rebound for Raw, which is struggling against the olympics. However, the stats are grim overall. An ageing fan base, an 800,000 drop in viewers from this time last year (last years figures were already very poor) and an obvious drop off again during the 3rd hour (300,000 viewers turned off between hour 2 and 3) .

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Smackers got good figures this week, wonder if it soon will overtake Raw.

If it does i expect Vince to ruin Smackdown like he did the first time.

 

[Saddlerrad]

SMACKDOWN - TUESDAY 16TH AUGUST 2016

Overall - 2.471m

Compared to 2015...

So Smackdown stays just about the same as the week before, with an obvious improvement compared to last years rating and a slightly weekly improvement with the olympics still on going in the background.


From Wrestling Observer Quote:

Like last week, Smackdown retained about 85% of the RAW audience, slightly higher than the first two weeks of the brand split after the inaugral draft.

The show is still up from the 2.1-2.2 million range that it was doing prior to the brand split and the move to a live show on Tuesdays. Especially considering that the last couple weeks have been against competition from the Olympics, that has to be considered a good sign.


Overall - A pretty good rating for Smackdown, things are staying steady for the B show as of yet.

 

[Saddlerrad]

RAW - MONDAY AUGUST 22ND 2016

Hour 1 - 3.462m
Hour 2 - 3.370m
Hour 3 - 3.113m
Overall - 3.315m

A nice 400,000 bump for this weeks Raw, a decent turn up. Although, it was the night after Summerslam, where the ratings normally jump like they would for Royal Rumble/Wrestlemania. You do have to worry that they could only rebound this much for the 2nd biggest PPV of the year and with the olympics now finishing. 3rd hour fagitue again was also obvious (They would really help themselves by going back to 2 hours)

Note: RAW is #1 by demo and #4 by viewership.

Year to Year Comparison
8/22/16 vs 8/24/15

H1- 3.462m vs 3.606m
H2- 3.370m vs 3.794m
H3- 3.113m vs 3.764m
3H- 3.315m vs 3.721m (-10.91% / -0.406M)

Don't let the bump fool you too much though..

Summerslam - 2.34 RATING
Battleground - 2.36 RATING


Overall - An improvement on the previous couple of weeks, definetely. However, lots more work to do and the 3rd hour is really killing the overall rating/interest in the show again. Whilst the bump is good, it's really nothing to shout about comparatively.