Despite the good run of shows over the last couple of weeks, a lack of real star power or nostalgic acts has really hurt WWE’s flagship show Raw recently. With the ratings hitting rock bottom, last Monday’s episode hit a new 18-year low.
They had previously hit a new low with the 27/10 show with 3.27 million viewers, but Monday’s episode reached just 3.24 million, the lowest non-holiday episode since before The Attitude Era and the war with WCW.
The show started with 3.38 million for the first hour, but bottomed out to 3.18 million for hour two. The Survivor Series match featuring Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens and The New Day taking on Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Ryback and The Usos clawed back some viewers, but only an extra 100,000. Despite the slight increase, the first two hours were well below the usual audience.
And unlike previous weeks, there was no football or baseball to lay blame on. The Carolina Panthers vs. Indianapolis Colts game did 12.40 million viewers, but that is a usual audience level.
The show did suffer from not having big name stars like John Cena (on sabbatical), Randy Orton (injured), Brock Lesnar (gone home) or The Undertaker (missing in storyline) and they also didn’t have returning stars like Steve Austin, Ric Flair or Shawn Michaels to rely on, and it wasn’t a post-PPV-show. The key to those four names, however, is that they were all made pre-2005, which means that WWE has failed to create a star in a decade that people want to tune in and see.
We’ll see how WWE react to this news for next week’s show.
Originally published November 4, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
