The show was hurt by strong cable competition, as it was only 6th for the night, including the first Monday night football game of the season (4.07 rating; 5.37 million viewers for Dallas Cowboys vs. Oakland Raiders). Usually preseason football doesn’t hurt Raw, as Raw traditionally does big August numbers and drops 10% or so in September against the regular season games. But preseason games also usually don’t beat Raw as this one did. The final episode of The Closer on TNT did a 6.8 rating and the debut of Major Crimes on TNT did a 5.5 rating, which are likely to be the two highest rated shows of the week on cable. There was nothing big on network programming. The debut of “Stars Earn Stripes,” a reality show promoted heavily on the Olympics, with Eve Torres, did a 3.05 rating and 5.24 million viewers, which is up from what NBC had been averaging (a 2.4) in that time slot this summer before the Olympics.
It was the lowest rated Raw since the 5/28 show did a 2.72 rating and 3.91 million viewers, which got killed by the Hatfield & McCoy mini-series and the Celtics vs. Heat NBA playoff game. The rule of thumb is not to overreact to one weeks rating, particularly when ratings were good the past few weeks. The three hours were 2.68, 2.89 and 2.98. Teenage boys did a 3.1 (up 11%), Males 18-49 did a 2.6 (up 4%), Teenage girls did a 1.5 (up 7%) and Women 18-49 did a 1.0 (down 9%). The skew was 70.1% male which means they were significantly down with women overall.
In the segment-by-segment, the promotion online and through social media that they were opening with C.M. Punk vs. Big Show led to a 2.60 quarter, the lowest quarter for a Raw episode in months. Ryback vs. JTG gained 63,000 viewers. R-Truth vs. Heath Slater gained 186,000 viewers. Sin Cara vs. Tensai lost 105,000 viewers. The Piper’s Pit segment with Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler and The Miz gained 516,000 viewers for the 9 p.m. start. You’d think by four weeks that wouldn’t happen, but it’s been ten weeks for TNA and it still happens. Jericho vs. Ziggler vs. Miz in a three-way lost 96,000 viewers. Backstage stuff with Shawn Michaels, John Cena and Punk lost 374,000 viewers. Eve Torres & Beth Phoenix vs. Kaitlyn & Layla gained 45,000 viewers. Cena & Punk vs. Show & Daniel Bryan gained 247,000 viewers to a 2.94 quarter at 10 p.m. Still not good for that time slot even with Cena. Christian vs. Damien Sandow lost 121,000 viewers. The contract signing with Brock Lesnar, HHH, Heyman and Michaels gained 431,000 viewers. The parking lot car accident and lights attack lost 394,000 viewers. And the in-ring angle where Lesnar “broke Michaels’ arm” gained 817,000 viewers to a 3.44 overrun.
INSERT X DRAWS, Y DOESN'T DRAW FOR THIS ONE SPECIFIC WEEK AND GENERALIZE A STATEMENT BUT FORGET THESE RATINGS ONCE NEXT WEEK'S SHOW ARRIVES.
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