This past week of WWE Raw earned itself a 3.2 rating. It averaged 4.72 million viewers throughout the two-hour show and was the second-highest rated show of the night (behind NFL Monday Night Football).
It was a solid show. However, numbers are what tell the entire story. Here are the segment-by-segment breakdowns of each quarter, with my thoughts after each section.
The show started off with a 3.66 rating. It featured CM Punk and Johnny Ace talking about WWE Survivor Series the night before.
This was the highest number of the night, and it is not surprising. People want to tune in for the PPV results, and there was a new WWE Champion. Nice number to start!
Zack Ryder vs. Alberto Del Rio lost 882,000 viewers in the next segment.
I spoke of this before, but Ryder is not a main-event performer in my eyes. Clearly, this was set up as a squash for Del Rio, so viewers had no reason to see an easy win.
Jack Swagger vs. Sheamus and Kevin Nash's promo gained 120,000 viewers back.
They rebounded a little bit here, but the damage had already been done. Sheamus is going to be a huge star one day, and Nash cut a very simple heel promo.
Cody Rhodes beating Santino and the post-match interaction with Booker T at commentary lost 104,000 viewers.
Not surprising. Cody Rhodes is not a main-event performer, nor is Santino, Again, it was set up to be an easy victory, so why watch? Rhodes is only going to improve from here, so his Booker T feud is great. However, there is no incentive to watch right now. It is more of a "Smackdown" feud.
CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler gained back 197,000 viewers.
That seems like a nice number, but it isn't. The top of the hour should draw in tons more viewers than that. I hate to say it, but like the other matches, there was not much of a doubt in the winner. Punk was going to win after a nice match, and that is exactly what happened.
Wade Barrett vs. Kofi Kingston lost 485,000 viewers in the next match.
Again, this should not be a surprise. Kofi is a low-card performer right now (with no Evan Bourne), and Barrett is slowly getting back into a "groove." Viewers also had to suspect Randy Orton would be involved, so perhaps announcing Orton would be ringside for the match might have convinced some people at home to stick around.
The final segment with John Cena, The Miz and R-Truth gained 1,125,000 viewers for an overrun of a 3.65, about the same as the opening segment of the show.
The show came full circle. It began with a 3.66 and ended with a 3.65. Clearly, viewers wanted to see John Cena, and the added intrigue of Awesome Truth likely helped the closing. Big numbers for big time players! Nothing shocking...
As you can see in the figures, numbers do not lie. Viewers are invested in the major stars, but they have very little reason to watch WWE from beginning to end. I am very interested to see how WWE Raw does next week with a big WWE Championship match already set.
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