Looking at The Raw Ratings Decline

3.37, 3.39, 3.34, and 3.34. These are the number of viewers in millions that the WWE has garnered for Monday Night RAW throughout the month of September. The ratings for RAW since the summer ended have been at historic record number lows. This is a far cry from May 10, 1999 when RAW received a record high ratings number of 8.1, which is the equivalent of over 9 million people watching the product that night.

While it is unfair to compare today’s RAW rating with the highest rated RAW in history during the industry’s hottest period, it does raise an eyebrow when you hear week after week that RAW set a new record low in number of viewers. What could be the reason for the drop in viewers?

FOOTBALL

The easy cop out would be to blame the National Football League for the decrease in viewership. After all, historically, RAWs numbers always drop once the NFL’s flagship Monday Night Football program debuts each September.

The number of viewers that were watching the week before Monday Night football began was 3.37 million. That was a holiday Monday, so we will ignore that number. The last Monday that didn’t have the NFL or a holiday as competition was the August 24th edition of Monday Night RAW that drew a total viewership of 3.72 million viewers. That show was the RAW the night after SummerSlam, which figured to be one of the bigger ratings of the summer. Between that RAW and the Monday Night Football opener, the WWE lost 330,000 viewers.

In 2014, the last week of August produced a total number of viewers of 3.97 million. The week of the first RAW vs. Monday Night Football clash of 2014, RAW produced a total number of viewers of 3.98 million. They kept pace with the NFL’s opening week. In 2013, the first Monday Night Football battle drew 3.88 million viewers to the last week of August’s 4.19 million viewers. There was a drop of 310,000 viewers. In 2012, the number dropped from 4.48 million and 4.13 million, which was 350,000 viewers.

While the RAW viewership is affected by football, it seems that there is more to the ratings drop then just the NFL. The typical ratings drop off during the football season is usually in the 300,000 viewership level. Thus, football has not affected the ratings any more than usual.

RECORD LOWS

Where the WWE needs to be concerned with isn’t the Monday Night Football drop off, but they need to worry about the drop in viewership that has caused the record low ratings now that the NFL football season has begun.

In 2015, the WWE has only posted RAW episodes that had over 4 million viewers watching a total of nine times. Seven of the nine times happened during WrestleMania season, where the WWE peaked the night after WrestleMania with a 5.36 million viewership. After that, the only other shows to crack over 4 million viewers was the go home show to Extreme Rules (4.038 million) and the night after the Money in the Bank pay per view (4.11 million).

In 2013, the WWE had a viewership of over 4 million viewers on 30 editions of RAW. In 2014, RAW broke the 4 million plus viewership mark on 34 episodes of the WWE’s flagship program.

WHY???

The million dollar question in the WWE has to be why have RAW ratings dropped so significantly within the last year?

THE ANSWERS

VIEWING HABITS

In 2015, you no longer need to watch any programs live. Besides sporting events, I watch everything on tape delay, so I can fast forward through commercials. Through Tivo, DVR, YouTube, and RAW airing in an abridged version on Hulu Plus, you no longer need to sit through three hours of RAW. As a matter of fact, these formats make RAW more enjoyable.

You hate commercials, fast forward through them. You hate the tons of recaps that air throughout RAW, hit fast forward. Divas segment or the twenty-minute promo got you down, you can skip it. Sure, these methods were available for a few years already, but watching television through additional methods is more prevalent today that it has ever been. While there are different metrics used to measuring these new viewing habits, they are rarely (if ever) mentioned when discussing the number of viewers watching a particular program. If Nielsen families are no longer watching RAW live, but are still viewing it through these other methods, the Nielsen ratings would not reflect this, and ratings for the show would decline.

TOO MUCH WRESTLING ON TV

Back in 2013, you had three main wrestling shows on television. For the WWE, there was RAW and SmackDown. For TNA, there was Impact Wrestling. Fast forward to present day, and you have eight different shows you can watch during a week. On Monday nights, there is Monday Night RAW. On Wednesday, you have a Destination America double feature of TNA Wrestling and Ring of Honor wrestling. Not to be outdone, the WWE airs their developmental NXT wrestling program on the WWE Network. On Thursday, WWE SmackDown! airs. You can also find Lucha Underground, New Japan Wrestling airing on cable. Plus, WWE Main Event is also featured on the WWE Network.

This doesn’t even take WWE Network specials, pay per views, and new original programming that they offer. Plus, Ring of Honor features iPPVs over the internet. This is too much wrestling action for one too watch each week. Oversaturation is the best word to describe the amount of professional wrestling on TV. Sometimes too much of something is not a good thing. That holds true with all of the professional wrestling on TV today. With so much wrestling on TV, the viewer now picks and chooses what too watch as its too time consuming to watch everything.

THREE-HOUR RAWs

One of the biggest problems that is hurting RAW is adding an additional hour of programming to WWE’s RAW telecast. When both the WWF and WCW were battling neck to neck during the Monday Night Wars, WCW added an extra hour of Monday Nitro to compete with the two hour RAW telecast. While World Championship Wrestling, at the time, had a loaded roster, over time, three hours proved too much wrestling on one night. In July 2012, the USA Network requested that the WWE add an extra hour to RAW. While the added revenue was a huge bonus to the WWE, they ignored history and repeated WCW’s mistake of going to three hours. After the first show, you could already tell that the extra hour was one hour too much. Actually, the best utilization from an entertainment standpoint would be for RAW to be 90 minutes. However, that will never happen. Neither will going back to a two-hour format. The WWE with the added cash intake, and the USA Network with a stronger hold on being the #1 cable network in the industry proves too enticing for both sides to get rid of hour three.

LACK OF STAR POWER

In 2013, the WWE had the most popular wrestler in the industry not named John Cena on their roster in CM Punk. The Rock made some sporadic appearances on RAW. As did the Undertaker, during WrestleMania season. Daniel Bryan’s popularity was exploding to heights not seen since arguably Steve Austin’s run in the Attitude Era. Brock Lesnar appeared as a part time player, as did Triple H. Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio were around as the WWE tried to use them to get a stranglehold on the Latin market.

Since then, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, and Alberto Del Rio have left the company. Daniel Bryan has been on the shelf for most of the past two calendar years due to being injured. The Rock has appeared on fewer and fewer shows since main eventing WrestleMania XXIX against John Cena. The two biggest losses to the company during this time are probably CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. When both of them were on RAW, you knew that you had at least two must watch moments on RAW.

While the WWE was losing star power, they really haven’t done anything to create new stars. Since 2013, who is the breakout star that crashed through to the masses like John Cena, and before him The Rock, Steve Austin, and Hulk Hogan? The answer is easy. No one has broke through to the “household name” level. The WWE is hoping that Roman Reigns would be that guy. In time, he may be. However, right now, the fans are rejecting him as the new face of the company. Aside from Reigns, and to an extent Seth Rollins, who has the WWE created as the next big thing? Seth Rollins has proven that he is a tremendous worker, and has earned his spot as the top heel in wrestling. However, is he a needle mover, or a name that a non-fan knows when you mention the WWE. No, for them it’s John Cena, and part-timers like Brock Lesnar and Triple H.

I’ve argued numerous times on this site about how the WWE’s even stevens booking philosophy is killing the product when it comes to hindering superstar development. I will stand by my opinion that this is the biggest determent in creating stars. The WWE needs to stop the even stevens booking, and maybe push performers NOT named John Cena in outside endeavors. A perfect example would be having other performers hosting the Today Show. How about booking different superstars on the talk show circuit? You need WWE stars on Hollywood’s stage as opposed to Hollywood stars showing up on RAW. When the WWF was promoting the Rock n’ Wrestling Connection angle, Hulk Hogan went to the Grammys with Cyndi Lauper. That was major publicity for them. I’m not sure you can do that today. However, the M-TV Music Awards are more relaxed. Maybe you can get a WWE performer in the audience or to present an award. The WWE needs to start thinking outside of the box to help create stars outside of the WWE, because they aren’t doing it inside the squared circle on RAW.

THE TWENTY-MINUTE PROMO

Nothing kills the opening of RAW more than hearing a scripted twenty-minute promo that not even the individual delivering those lines believes in. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’m watching RAW, and after the opening promo, I say to myself, “OK, I’m bored with RAW already.” I thought that the RAW a couple of weeks ago was pretty good. When I examined the show, I realized that the broadcast featured not one twenty-minute monologue. If the WWE insists on having promos open RAW, they need to cut the dialogue time in half. And, God forbid, let the performers cut their own promos! Who knows their character better than the one living and breathing the character every day on the road? It’s the performer, not the writer. Bullet points are fine, but then let the performer fill in the blanks. The WWE would probably be surprised at the outcome.

There are many other reasons why the WWE’s ratings have fallen. However, these are the main reasons why I feel the ratings are crashing. Do you agree? What are your reasons? Hit the Comments section, and let me know.