WWE Raw Viewership Falls After Hell In A Cell Disaster
WWE's former flagship suffers significant ratings hit.
This week's WWE Raw episode drew an average of 2.334 million viewers across its three-hour broadcast, per Showbuzz Daily. That's a decline of over 200,000 after last week's inflated 2.571 million for the much-hyped season premiere.
Broken down, Raw attracted 2.442 million viewers during its first hour, 2.330 million during the second, and 2.230 during the third, meaning that the show-closing Tyson Fury/Braun Strowman confrontation wasn't enough to prevent the standard third-hour dropoff.
Raw finished at number 13 on the evening's cable viewership table. The fall in numbers places WWE's red brand close to its Q3 average for 2019.
Though the show was supposed to act as both a Hell In A Cell fallout destination and a precursor to this week's draft, HIAC main-eventers Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins were both conspicuous by their absence. Perhaps this was a wise move, as the wrestlers needed to sell their injuries and WWE had to dodge the heat from that much-maligned bout, though it was still odd to see the promotion barely acknowledge the match all night.
The 11 and 14 October draft episodes of SmackDown and Raw should guarantee another ratings boost, at least.