WWE Raw Ratings Dip As National College Football Championship Game Dominates Monday Night

This week’s edition of WWE Monday Night Raw faced some stiff competition. It went up against the NCAA Football National Championship game, which saw Alabama take on Clemson.

The National Championship game drew over 25 million viewers and led the night in viewership, while Raw averaged 3.323 million viewers and finished in the ratings as #6 overall. This is down 7% or approximately 250,000 viewers from last week’s show, which averaged 3.575 million viewers.

The hourly breakdown for this week’s Raw is as follows (in millions):

Hour 1: 3.536

Hour 2: 3.206

Hour 3: 3.228

The National Championship game didn’t start until 8:30 p.m. ET, which most likely helped Raw’s first hour ratings. Hour three also saw a slight spike in the ratings; this may be attributed to the anticipated return of Brock Lesnar, as well as Roman Reigns’ “one versus all” match that was advertised to close the show.

Mark’s reaction: Raw taking a hit this week in the ratings should come as no surprise to most people. The National Championship game was expected to dominate viewership for the night like it does every year, and this time was no exception. I was flipping back and forth throughout the night between Raw and the game as well.

I feel like the WWE threw in the towel a little bit this week and hoped that the advertising of Brock Lesnar would be enough to keep people tuned in. Aside from a few moments, Raw was pretty lackluster. They didn’t even announce any matches for the Royal Rumble yet; one of their more popular PPV’s that’s only 2 weeks away. I just feel like you can tell when the WWE’s not trying. Maybe it was because of the football game, but this week’s Raw definitely felt like one where they didn’t care.

Source: Showbuzz Daily

Image above is courtesy of WWE.com.