How Did Daniel Bryan's Retirement Affect WWE RAW Ratings?
Viewership was up, but not for the portion of the show you'd expect.
First Hour: 3.907 million viewers Second Hour: 3.905 million viewers Third Hour: 3.368 million viewersWhat's interesting when examining the viewership is that the show's rating probably popped due to the Daniel Bryan retirement announcement ahead of time, but over 500,000 viewers tuned out before Bryan's segment even aired. RAW experienced a steep drop-off in viewership from hour two to hour three, the same trend the show has experienced for many months. The Bryan segment actually aired in what was the fourth hour of the show, due to a long overrun on Monday night, but the viewership numbers for that fourth hour are indeed factored into the third hour viewership average above (the least viewed hour of the show). When examining the viewership data, the third hour was listed with a running time of 86 minutes. RAW finished the night as the most watched show on cable television. It narrowly beat out the O'Reilly Factor on FOX News, which drew 3.683 million viewers.