1. Can WWE Move Ratings In Right Direction?
Two weeks ago, Raw dipped below 3 million viewers, setting a 15-plus year record low for a non-holiday episode. Put more simply, a record low number of people are watching Raw right now. This comes after a summer when viewership hovered in the 3.5-4 million range, hitting 3.89 million at the end of August. That means that nearly one quarter of that audience has evaporated in just three months. Thankfully for WWE, the number of viewers climbed back above 3 million last week, averaging 3.17 million for the episode. That still is well below where WWE was last year at this time, as the December 1, 2014 episode of Raw boasted 3.88 million viewers. Thats a drop-off of 18% from last year. Still, WWE has to take the 200,000 increase in viewers and build off it. Another ratings increase would be welcome news to the company, but WWE brass has to start by putting together a better product if it wants that number to trend upward rather than drop below 3 million again. Monday is the first test.
Scott Carlson
Contributor
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
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