WWE Television Ratings

[Heisenberg]

Surprised this hasn't been posted from the 1000th RAW.

The following are the quarter-hour numbers from the July 23 edition of WWE Raw 1,000. Thanks to ProWrestling.net for the source of the story.

Q1: 3.5 rating - Opening video package, Vince McMahon in-ring, Triple H and Shawn Michaels out. Billy Gunn, X-Pac, and Road Dogg out. DX Reunion.

Q2: 3.6 rating - DX Reunion continues and Damien Sandow joins in. Jim Ross comes out and joins Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler on commentary. Opening match begins.

Q3: 3.3 rating - Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara, & Sheamus vs. Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, & Alberto Del Rio. Charlie Sheen talks on Skype with Cole and Lawler. Two commercials.

Q4: 3.5 rating - A.J. and Layla backstage with some WWE legends. Brodus Clay comes out. Dude Love appearance. Clay vs. Jack Swagger. Triple H backstage with Trish Stratus and DX.

Q5: 3.9 rating - Slick presides over the A.J. and Daniel Bryan wedding. Vince McMahon out to announce A.J. as the new general manager.

Q6: 4.3 rating - Daniel Bryan & C.M. Punk in-ring. The Rock out for segment with Bryan and Punk.

Q7: 3.7 rating - Bret Hart as guest ring announcer. The Miz vs. Christian. Multiple commercials.

Q8: 3.9 rating - Charlie Sheen via Skype again, Regis Philbin pre-tape, Triple H, Paul Heyman, and Stephanie McMahon in-ring segment.

Q9: 4.0 rating - Brock Lesnar attacks Triple H. Video game feature. Mr. McMahon and Steve Austin feud history video. Two commercials.

Q10: 4.0 rating - Santino Marella and Hornswoggle out, Howard Finkel introduces the Heath Slater and Lita match. APA and legends out. Sean Mooney interviews Daniel Bryan backstage.

Q11: 4.2 rating - Cole interviews social media follower Alex Guerrero Jr. Zack Ryder, John Cena, and "Mean" Gene Okerlund backstage. The Rock and John Cena backstage segment. Kane entrance. Jinder Mahal leads a group of wrestlers to the ring. Undertaker arrives and helps Kane.

Q12: 3.9 rating - Rally highlights, Sheen via Skype once again, Main Event ring walks. C.M. Punk vs. John Cena. Two commercials.

Overrun: 4.4 rating - Punk vs. Cena continues. Big Show interference. Rock run-in. Punk attacks The Rock.

So wrestling matches lost viewers, entertainment segments gained viewers.

 

[Troy]

WWE must have loved looking at those numbers when they came out seeing so many segments hitting 4.0, they just shouldn't get used to it.

The 7/27 edition of Smackdown held up very well against the Olympics opening ceremony, drawing a strong 2,834,000 viewers. It was the highest rated original series on cable for the evening.

Only 100,000 viewers down from last weeks 2.02 rating so it will probably end up around 1.95. Very good hold but I wonder what has changed and caused more people to tune into Smackdown recently? They get Vince on there this week to announce the new Smackdown GM so we will see how that goes.

 

[Heisenberg]

Monday's WWE Raw show drew a 3.08 rating, down from the 3.84 rating that Raw 1000 drew. The first hour of the show drew a 2.8 rating. Hour two scored a 3.2 rating. The final hour rose to a 3.3 rating.

Eh kind of expected. Plus the whole Olympics are going on so it's still a nice rating. RAW performed pretty well in hour two and three. The first hour had the lowest ratings. But WWE presented a good enough show to keep fans from leaving.

 

[Chris]

Would have been a fine rating if it weren't a three hour show.

 

[Johnny Ace]

Not to bad, but the 3 hour format is to long for me. I can barely watch Raw when it was 2 hours long and now since it is 3 hours long is just way to damn long. The good news is that the ratings increased throughout the show versus TNA which there rating go down throughout the show.

 

[Chris]

Pretty sure the three hour format is too long for a lot of people. Maybe if they actually fit extra programming in it instead of playing the same recaps over and over some would feel differently.

 

[Heisenberg]

As noted before, the July 30th WWE RAW did a 3.09 cable rating with 4.50 million viewers. The three hours came in at 2.79, 3.21 and 3.25. This shows that even with the big numbers from RAW 1000, WWE still had trouble getting the entire audience tuned in at 8pm.

In the segment breakdown, Alberto Del Rio vs. Santino Marella lost 261,000 viewers from the opener, which is not a good drop for hour one. The angle with Damien Sandow and Brodus Clay with Vickie Guerrero dancing gained 214,000 viewers. Daniel Bryan and AJ backstage plus the recap of Stephanie McMahon attacking Paul Heyman from RAW 1000 lost 18,000 viewers.

Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan in a Street Fight at 9pm gained 521,000 viewers. Segments with R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Daniel Bryan and AJ gained 274,000 viewers, which is a good gain for that timeslot. Kofi vs. Titus O'Neil lost 223,000 viewers while Randy Orton's return vs. Heath Slater gained 40,000 viewers.

Chris Jericho and Christian vs. The Miz and Dolph Ziggler gained 51,000 viewers for a 3.24 quarter rating - a very weak gain for the 10pm timeslot. Tyson Kidd vs. Tensai lost 34,000 viewers while the third recap of the Triple H and Brock Lesnar RAW 1000 segment lost 246,000 more viewers. John Cena vs. Big Show in the main event with CM Punk on commentary gained 1,181,000 viewers for a 3.86 overrun. This was the best gaining RAW segment in a while.

The problem seems to be the first hour, maybe people are forgetting. I dunno but the next 2 hours gain more. Like the 1,000th RAW.

Nice gain for the Bryan match which was a good match. People hating the recaps it would seem like. And a nice gain for the main event.

 

[Troy]

First hour was always going to struggle, in the end three hours is a very long time to be sitting watching the same show. It is the length of a very long feature film each week and people will pick and choose the hours to watch. The best things normally happen later in the show so they will be tuning in later on. Plus with the number of recaps WWE show each RAW you could tune in half an hour before the end and be completely up to date by the end.

 

[Heisenberg]

- As noted before, the August 6th WWE RAW did a 3.09 cable rating with 4.37 million viewers. The three hours did ratings of 2.80, 3.26 and 3.19. There were no big segments this week and there was a fade in the third hour with the peak being the segment with Brock Lesnar, Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

In the segment breakdown, CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio gained 123,000 viewers. Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio gained another 123,000 viewers. Randy Orton vs. Big Show at the top of the hour gained 480,000 viewers. Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks vs. Ryback plus Titus O'Neil and Darren Young vs. Primo and Epico gained 78,000 viewers. Considering the talents in those few segments, one could assume that it would lose viewers but this could be a sign that the Ryback gimmick is catching on with fans.

The angle with Brodus Clay and Damien Sandow lost 135,000 viewers. Kelly Kelly vs. Eve Torres gained another 113,000 viewers. The highest rated segment of the show was Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Brock Lesnar - gaining 232,000 viewers, which actually isn't a strong gain for the 10pm timeslot. Their segment did a 3.45 quarter rating.

Alex Riley vs. Dolph Ziggler lost 390,000 viewers while The Miz vs. Kane lost 208,000 more viewers. John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan in the main event gained 345,000 viewers for a 3.27 quarter rating, which is not a strong overrun segment and a disappointing main segment with John Cena.

 

[Chris]

CM Punk gaining viewers, what is this madness!?

 

[Troy]

Pretty weak peaks for the show, nothing really stood out that much. I expected higher for the Shawn Michaels segment and for the mainevent.

They have announced a match already for next week's RAW, Punk vs. Show to open the show so they are trying to convince viewers that it is worth tuning in from the start.

 

[Chris]

The Shawn segment would have probably been rated much higher if they would have advertised it more in advance. It was announced on "WWE's Text Message Service" earlier in the day.

 

[Troy]

Didn't they announce that this RAW would be a HBK appreciation night a month ago? They should have promoted it more on the previous RAW and even during this RAW they should have used him in more than just the one segment.

 

[Heisenberg]

This past Friday night's edition of WWE Smackdown drew a final 1.89 cable rating and took in*2.73 million viewers. This is down from last week's show, which drew a 1.91 rating and took in 2.78 million viewers.

Smackdown last week went up against atypical competition as NFL pre-season football was airing at the same time.

Alright rating I guess.

Sources: TV By The Numbers, ProWrestling.net

Last night's episode of RAW garnered a 2.84 rating with 4.13 million viewers. It was the lowest rated episode since the show moved to three hours last month.

The rating was down from last week's episode, which which did a 3.08 rating with 4.367 million viewers. The previous week's show also did a 3.08 rating.

The first hour of last night's show did 3.795 million viewers, while the second garnered 4.252 million viewers, and the third drew 4.354 million viewers.

Bad rating and a significant drop. But what do you expect? 3 hours is getting too long for lackluster tv. What is new in the extra hour? PPVs are now the same length as RAW...

 

[PHX]

What is new in the extra hour? Recaps on top of recaps, tout and more twitter of course. I said it months before it became 3 hours that I wasn't confident in what they would do with an extra hour.