CORRECTION: The final viewing figure for RAW is different to this article. The corrected figure can be found here.
The May 31st episode of RAW had the lowest total viewership in the shows history. PW Torch are reporting that the average viewership for the Memorial Day episode was 1.418 million viewers. As well as this being the lowest rating ever, this is also a significant drop from the previous week. The May 24th edition of Monday Night RAW drew 1.62 million viewers.
Yikes! Maybe Raw's lowest rating ever Monday… 1.1 cable rating. Dropped to 1.168 million in third hour! 0.44 demo 18-49 rating. More at https://t.co/b30cDz6YY1 later.
— Pro Wrestling Torch (@PWTorch) June 2, 2021
The main reason why the rating was so low is because of the third hour drop off. Only 1.1 million people stayed to watch the final hour of RAW, which was main evented by Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston in a number one contenders match. Because of this, the average viewership was negatively affected and this generated the final number. It should be noted that this episode of RAW was also the commentating debut for new announcer Jimmy Smith. Below is the hourly rating for Monday Night RAW, as obtained from Fightful:
- Hour 1: 1.536 million viewers
- Hour 2: 1.549 million viewers
- Hour 3: 1.168 million viewers
One reason why viewership was down was because the episode took place on Memorial Day, which is a holiday in the United States. Traditionally, most TV ratings are lower on holiday episodes. However, while WWE would be expecting a lower number, having their rating drop below 1.5 million will be a shock for the company.
When ratings are down, WWE have a history of tactics to try and generate more viewers. The two most common ideas are to bring back established stars/legends to try and generate a rating, or to try a shock TV tactic. Examples of shock TV have included RAW Underground, wildcard rules and invasions.
Featured image: WWE
