WWE Raw Rating – Viewers Tune Out For Third & Final Hour

Richard Gray September 5, 2012 WWE News 40 Comments

Monday’s episode of WWE Raw did a 2.83 cable rating with an average viewing audience of 4,200,000 viewers on the USA Network.

While one may assume the numbers were lower due to the Labor Day holiday and while they may be true, the show lost a significant amount of audience by the third hour. Below is the hour-by-hour breakdown of average viewership:

Hour one – 4,310,000 viewers
Hour two – 4,400,000 viewers
Hour three – 3,910,000 viewers

Raw Ratings Archive

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Richard Gray

Richard Gray is the owner and editor of WrestlingNewsWorld.com. Covering the professional wrestling business since 1999, Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia University. He is also the owner of Gray Internet Technologies, LLC. and should be contacted with all business matters. You can friend him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. Email him directly at [email protected].

xChristenLynnx

Raw needs to go back to 2 hours their ratings keep going down further and further they either need to find something to keep viewers all 3 hours or go back to 2 hours
- diddy
  
  If raw goes back to 2 hours they lose the extra revenue from the extra hours worth of adverts
  - Ken
    
    Ultimately extra adverts do no one any good if no one watches them. Just a thought.
Matt

That's not good at all, but then again, there was really nothing. No one wanted to see Del Rio in the main event.
- Liam
  
  That match was really good. Personally I like where ADR is at right noe
James M>>>

Wowsers
Wwe4L76

Strange…. 3h kids show
Bob

That sucks. I wonder what drew viewers away?
- the arbiter
  
  Its 3 hours long? That enough to make people turn off as its a major commitment to watch, especially when a good half of the show is ads or recaps
PFElton

Oh, it was definitely Labor Day's fault. Therefore, it's the Union's fault; see, if Linda McMahon had been elected to the Senate in 2010 there'd be no more Unions. So it's Connecticut's fault. Nothing to do with that amazing, gripping, family-friendly thrillride of THREE HOUR programming that is only described as "RAW". Nope.
Bigdaddychuck

Nobody wants to see Cena anymore..what they should do is have heyman turn on Punk and join Cena.. Make Cena heel already!!!!
Josh

Proof 3 hours is just too long to watch a TV program. I have only watched one Raw the whole way since they went to 3 hours and it was the 1000th.
http://twitter.com/SimplyMAB Marc

Abysmal. R.I.P. professional wrestling
- Kleck
  
  Because WWE didn’t make a 20mil Net Income in 2011…oh they did.
- PFElton
  
  Yeah, the deathdate for that is March 26, 2001.
ChromeyDaniels

I think that most people were expecting a punk match but did not get it. If they really did punk vs. Sheamus to end the show, that would of worked out perfectly and no viewers would of turned away. I almost changed the channel after the second hour.
KVB

Can u post the Canadian ratings??? Be interesting to compare.
The Breaker

The drop in viewers makes sense. Things really started to drag on during hour two; between the Diva's match, mid-card stuff (Ryback, Cesaro, Ryder), and the backstage segments with AJ it becomes easy to lose interest in the show. And by that point in the show people knew they wouldn't see Punk in a match. Overall RAW was good this week, and for the most part it has been since the move to three hours. The length is the biggest problem right now. They can't seem to effectively fill the extra hour, so we get a couple more throwaway matches and some backstage stuff. It's too bad so many people tuned out for the third hour, because the Cena/ Del Rio match was much better than expected. And of course the ending was very interesting.
Mike Gilreath

They just need to give us 3 hours of new programing and not over an hour of recaps. You can miss raw and almost see all of it again next week in recaps…
n1ck

there are way too many drama queens on this site
Luke

Well they probably got tired of all the commercials!!
christopher525

No Punk, nobody cared.
ted

the rating for raw is fine. wwe is making millions each year.

vince is never going to give up the extra hour of raw when wwe gets millions of dolars in extra revenue.

if internet "experts" think wwe's ratings are bad, look at the "competition". mighty tna.

tna will be lucky to get a 1.0 rating when football on thursdays begins and they have HAS BEEN HOGAN AND MIDDLE AGED STING on the roster.
Chris

If WWE thinks this is bad, just wait till next monday and beyond when Monday Night Football returns! Anyone wanna disagree?
LeftyTosser

Thank goodness I record RAW and just play through the commercials and boring parts. It normally takes about 30 minutes to watch the 3 hour show. The show has gotten so boring over the past few months. It's all Cena and Punk. What happened to the rest of the roster?
Anand

The problem is – 3 hours looks too long and boring if we consider the numerous recaps and recaps of recaps that take up close to 15-20 mins easily in every show. Add the approx 30 mins of ad time and you have less than 2 hours of actual show in a 3 hour window which gets kind of boring…

WWE needs to:
1. Cut down on recaps. We all get that Brock lesnar broke HHHs arm at Summerslam. We need not be reminded 3 times in every episode of WWE Raw
2. Cut down on unwanted squash matches. Give mid-card guys a feud to take forward. All we have is a couple of high-profile feuds between maineventers and thats it. there is no mid-card per say…
3. Audience has a brain and CANNOT/WILL NOT bear rubbish shoved down their throat (Read Del Rio) when you have other talented guys in the roster
4. Storylines need to be more convincing… You cant just throw two people into a feud because they both have nothing to do… Build-up to the fight is almost as important as the fight itself…

Hopefully things will improve – or else going back to 2 hours is inevitable…
http://www.12ozprophet.com Dangerous Lee

I hope wwe ratings drop while tna ratings rise. Maybe thatll light a fire under their ass and come out with a better product.
H.M.

A 3 hour show wouldn't be so bad if the mid-card angles actually had some spice. Instead we're stuck with boring unintensified, generic heel/face mid card feuds that are barely taken seriously. As for the main event ADR vs Cena is a snoozefest on paper. Yeah the match was great and surprised many (including myself) but I have a feeling that it's what turned a lot of viewers away. All I have to say is thank god for the DVR because 1) No one wants to be stuck watching commercials that accumulate to almost 50 minutes of the actual 3 hour timeslot, 2) video recaps, packages, long entrances, and divas matches.

In other words very little substance in a typical 3 hour Raw to REALLY keep us tuned in. The Kane/Daniel Bryan stuff and the main event angles are the only reason I still tune in. The mid card quite frankly blows as far as intrigue goes.
Joda

Glad I didn't miss anything from what I hear. My DVR, for some reason, didn't record it.
Miles

Should be 3 hours of anger management, best vignettes for years
Thumpa

It would be nice if the belts were defended every week on Raw, IC title and US title needs to be defended REGULARLY with actual feuds and good storylines, and they could have a 15 min tag match every week as they’ve now got 5/6 teams plus Rey/Cara and Kane/Bryan (they messed that angle up). Defend the belts, invest in storylines and the viewers will stay!
Dee

It WAS a boring EP. When del rio came out i changed the channel and forgot to change it back hah
John rega

The 3rd hour lost its views because no one wanted to see Cena wrestle and not Punk.
Carvalho16

I personally turned it off after around the 2nd hour. I felt ill that the real 'main event' was Cena vs Del Rio and not Champion (Punk) Vs Champion (Sheamus). Although the Punk Vs Sheamus match didn't actually happen, it was disgusting that the holders of the 2 biggest titles in the WWE facing off against each other still couldn't warrant a main event over Super Cena and friends. In summary I really wanted to see Punk Vs Sheamus. Didn't care about Cena vs Del Rio one single bit.
Ray

It’s all the writers and creative team. I find it hard to sit through 3 hours especially a divas match or a JTG or Brodus Clay type matches. A 3 hour special use to be a treat, now it feels like a chore. Maybe they just just do more 3 hour specials in a year like 4-6
Denise

Raw is way tooooo long now. I lose interest by the 3rd hour. 2 hours was just fine. 3 hours, just damn greedy. Every couple of months do a 3 hour show this way their ratings won’t be too affected.
Lestat

I turned it of when I saw the main event was Cena vs Del Rio…
Willie

Bring back 2 hour show & change the hours 8-10
Kevin

They need to change the name of their Monday night show from "Raw" to "Medium", because that's what it has become since the new PG style was incorporated. Get back to Raw already and forget this PG crap!
Tim E. D

What has lost it for me is no surprises and every other segment stuff about social media