Tough Enough was an interesting disaster of a show that had an awkward flow to it from the beginning. The preseason episode was great, but the first episode was a mess. It moved too quickly for me to get to know anyone or see any real interaction, and I have no clue what Chris Jericho is there for. Maybe that’s why people tuned out and gave the show bad ratings. How bad?
Bad enough that the USA Network is airing two-hour versions of the previous night’s RAW to lead in to Tough Enough on Tuesdays. Via Meltzer:
There will be a two-hour edited version of Raw airing from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday night on the USA Network as a lead-in for Tough Enough. Clearly the rating for the first episode, barely one-third of what the first episode of the 2011 Steve Austin season did, caused this move. It is not confirmed if this is a one week thing or if it will become a regular thing for the remainder of the Tough Enough season, but historically USA has never wanted to air repeats of Raw in good time slots for fear of diluting the initial show rating.
This could actually work great, because I only watch RAW on Hulu anyway as I simply can’t take the three-hour product. So I imagine people will tune in to Tuesday nights if they can’t sit through a show that seems to last a fortnight. This could actually be a win/win for all parties involved.
For what it’s worth, the Tough Enough post-show is great. Daniel Bryan goes YOLO, and The Miz is much more natural at hosting than Jericho. You don’t even have to watch the actual show to enjoy it, either.
You know what? You can actually just watch Five hours of the same RAW show on back-to-back nights. What else are you going to watch? Baseball?
