This week’s episode of WWE Raw aired on tape delay from the O2 Arena in London. As is so often the case, this overseas Raw was a placeholder episode where nothing was really in danger of happening, and fan interest was likely to be low. Unfortunately, it was likely even lower than WWE anticipated.
Raw had previously set its 2017 low rating last Monday, on the fallout show for Payback. This week’s show saw the viewership fall by six percent, and had a particularly bad third hour, which had a main event of Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt in a non-title match.
According to ShowBuzz Daily, Raw drew an average of 2.696 million viewers, a significant dip from last week’s 2.87 million. This is the smallest viewership for a show since last year’s Halloween episode, which drew 2.69 million viewers. Raw was behind only the NBA Playoffs for the evening on cable, but fans continued to tune out as the three-hour show went along.
The first hour matched last week’s 2.87 million average rating, dropped slightly to 2.845 million in the second hour, and then plummeted to 2.417 million in the final hour. That equates to 15 percent of the audience leaving from the first hour to the third hour. Not great, Bob!
The ratings will likely tick upward after the show returns to the States and again when the NBA Playoffs are over, but that’s a rough one-two punch in consecutive weeks for the company.
