WWE Raw ratings fell to a new non-holiday low of 3.27 million viewers for the October 12 episode in Chicago. The only episode of the show to have done worse than that since 1997 was the 2012 Christmas Eve episode. That show did 3.14 million, but that's understandable with it being Christmas. The three hours this week were - 8 p.m. 3.52 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.25 million viewers 10 p.m. 3.08 million viewers What hurt Raw this week was combination of NFL football and baseball playoffs. Real major sports will always grab some of WWE's audience. The overall dullness of WWE's current Raw product is also making viewers switch off. The low ratings will be an annoyance to Vince McMahon. Even when they featured Brock Lesnar last week, it barely made any significant impact. Next week's Raw will be stacked with returns, including The Undertaker, but it isn't necessarily going to be guaranteed a good rating. Raw is in a decline and it is long term solutions that WWE need be coming up with. Keeping it in perspective, Raw is still significantly stronger for ratings and advertisers than anything else USA Network could put in the same slot. WWE was also the most watched YouTube channel in the world for August. People are still interested in WWE, they're just consuming the product in different ways. Raw is still very much the crown jewel of WWE and outperforms both NXT and Smackdown massively. Less than a million people watch NXT. Even a supposed competitor like UFC's Ultimate Fighter, that only does half a million viewers. It should also be noted that the autumn is always a low season for WWE, and they are always desperate for Mania season to swing around. Still, record lows suggest that the product is even less interesting than usual. Ultimately, Raw is far from finished, but it is significantly colder than it has been in previous years.
