Ratings for Monday Night Raw have been pretty doom and gloom all summer, delivering near record-low numbers on more than one occasion. Given recent trends, you’d think ratings news would have been particularly bleak over the past couple weeks, what with WWE’s top star John Cena out with a badly broken nose, but surprisingly, the exact opposite has been the case.
The Aug. 3 episode of Raw delivered an average of 3.7 million viewers, a modest uptick from the week before, and this week’s Raw delivered 3.83 million viewers, the best number of the entire summer. It’s still not a great number, but it’s a step in the right direction, and it happened on a show without John Cena, Brock Lesnar or The Undertaker. Here’s the hour-by-hour breakdown for this week’s show…
Hour one: 3.79 million
Hour two: 3.94 million
Hour three: 3.77 million
Of course, I’m not suggesting that John Cena being gone directly resulted in a ratings boost, so hold off on that angry comment. This week’s good numbers were almost certainly down to WWE putting together the rare Raw where it felt like things happened, rather than just throwing stars in a variety of tag matches and calling it a day. Still, it is proof that WWE can, with some effort, put together a show that largely revolves around talent like The New Day, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Rusev and Stardust that the masses actually want to watch. Now, imagine if WWE paired this week’s “stuff actually happens” approach with the big stars like Cena, Brock and ‘Taker. I know it’ll require more effort than is strictly necessary, but it might be worth a shot.
(Via SB Nation)
