Everyone’s timelines blew the hell up on Monday night, when the Ball family stopped by WWE Raw. It was a baffling segment that included LaVar Ball taking his shirt off, a word you’re not supposed to say on basic cable family programming, and just generally the Balls being the Balls.
It was a no-brainer for WWE to bring in LaVar Ball for Raw’s return to the Staples Center, and to be the company to present Lonzo Ball’s first quasi-appearance as a Laker at his new home arena. But WWE was probably hoping for a bit of a ratings bump by bringing the most hated man in America and his expensive shoes on their television show. As it turns out, people may not hate LaVar in the “I need to tune in to hate this guy” sense.
According to ShowBuzzDaily, Raw’s three-hour average was 2.97 million viewers, down from last week’s average of 3.10 million. The first hour ended up being the one that dragged the average down, as only 2.88 million tuned in for the first hour, viewership jumped up to 3.09 million in the second hour, and then had a perfectly solid 2.95 million viewers in its final hour. Raw was the most-watched program on cable for the evening, but a bit of a dud for the second post-NBA episode, especially given the buzz-worthy family’s appearance.
It’s not all bad news, obviously. The rating more or less held steady (you gotta stay positive), and people are going to be talking about that MizTV segment for a good long while. I mean, until next week’s Raw, at least.
