Presidential Debate Pushes WWE Raw Rating to Historic Low

– With both Monday Night Football and the first presidential debate, everyone was expecting Raw to have an all-time low number this week. And it didn’t disappoint in that regard. Monday’s episode brought in an 0.83 rating in the 18 – 49 demographic and 2.478 million viewers, down 9% and 8% from last week’s 0.91 demo rating and 2.684 million viewers. The numbers are the lowest that we have demographic ratings for in the show’s history.

The drop isn’t a surprise; as noted, everyone was tuning in to the debate or football and even the football game took a sizable hit, down from a 4.54 and 12.137 million last week to a 3.1 and 8.047 million. The debate or debate-related programs (generally post-debate analysis like The Kelly File on Fox News or CNN’s post-debate coverage) accounted for eight of the top nine cable shows for the night, with Monday Night Football (#2) being the sole exception.

Before the debate started, Raw was off to a decent start. But as you can see in the hourly numbers below, it quickly sunk at 9 PM when the debate began. Raw ranked #11 among cable originals.

8 PM: 0.97 demo rating (2.850 million viewers)
9 PM: 0.79 demo rating (2.381 million viewers)
10 PM: 0.74 demo rating (2.203 million viewers)

Credit: Showbuzz Daily