Last Monday's Raw split the difference...

[Kane Knight]

Well, for a while, Raw was hanging at around 3.6-3.8. It was pretty good, as it seemed to be Rock Bottom for WWE.

Then they dropped to 3.0 to 3.2, sometimes dropping below the 3.0 mark (2.7, I believe, was the lowest).

Then, they made a bit of a comeback recently.

Right now, we have an interesting situation. Last Monday, one hour of Raw ran at 3.2. The other did a 3.6. While this is only a .4 difference, it is nearly 1 million people (800,000) either tuning out for one hour or nearly a million people tuning in for one hour. This is a pretty large difference, and splits the difference between their two ratings levels of recent history.

So I'm wondering, as I haven't seen much on cable period, what the difference is in quality between the hours. Do you see one hour as superior, or one hour as horribly worse?

[Xero]

The only reason it jumped last week is because of Trump/McMahon/Austin.

I don't see much of a difference other than the main event players are usually in the second hour more than the first, but that's expected.

[CYCLOPTERSAURUS]

I know the first hour goes against 24 and Heroes, and I personally watch Heroes and tune in to Raw for the second hour.

[addy2hotty]

The second hour has been invariably worse in recent memory. Especially as you can pretty much guess whats going to happen. Cena/Michaels win, tease a fight and show ends.

I personally watch until the hour mark promo then tune out for the rest of the show. Interestly, WWE's figures have bombed in the UK in recent times - admittedly Sky seems to have messed around with the evening repeat time, but at one stage it was the second highest rating show (behind Live Football) on the Sky Sports channels. I think its fallen way way down the list.

In fact, on checking, Smackdown gets the highest ratings of about 200,000 viewers (total with repeats etc), with Raw about 50,000 behind. ECW does about 79k.

All's not well with WWE in the UK. Raw used to almost break a million in total.

[Arnold HamNegger]

The only reason it jumped last week is because of Trump/McMahon/Austin.

I don't see much of a difference other than the main event players are usually in the second hour more than the first, but that's expected.

I agree with this. The main events have been the S.O.S. forever though. I hope things shake up after Mania.

[Blitz]

I wouldn't be surprised to see at least a small spike this week, due to stupid marks who hear The Rock was on and think he's coming back.

[NeanderCarl]

The second hour has been invariably worse in recent memory. Especially as you can pretty much guess whats going to happen. Cena/Michaels win, tease a fight and show ends.

I personally watch until the hour mark promo then tune out for the rest of the show. Interestly, WWE's figures have bombed in the UK in recent times - admittedly Sky seems to have messed around with the evening repeat time, but at one stage it was the second highest rating show (behind Live Football) on the Sky Sports channels. I think its fallen way way down the list.

In fact, on checking, Smackdown gets the highest ratings of about 200,000 viewers (total with repeats etc), with Raw about 50,000 behind. ECW does about 79k.

All's not well with WWE in the UK. Raw used to almost break a million in total.

Still very good ratings for Sky Sports. For years (probably nearly two decades) the only feature on Sky Sports to consistantly outdraw wrestling is football, and yet Sky treats the wrestling and it's fans like second class citizens, bumping it around the schedules, often causing us to miss shows entirely due to negotiation stalls, refusing to give WWE prime time spots, basically giving wrestling little-to-no promotion or mainstream coverage... it's almost like they are resigned to having it there because they would miss the ratings, but they are embarrassed by it.

Kind of like a policeman looking the other way when a minor crime is being committed, just to avoid the paperwork of an arrest. He knows it's going on, and he doesn't like it, but it's more hassle than it's worth to stop it.

[NeanderCarl]

Any idea what the live PPVs draw in the UK? And how many buys the Box Office shows do?

[addy2hotty]

Still very good ratings for Sky Sports. For years (probably nearly two decades) the only feature on Sky Sports to consistantly outdraw wrestling is football, and yet Sky treats the wrestling and it's fans like second class citizens, bumping it around the schedules, often causing us to miss shows entirely due to negotiation stalls, refusing to give WWE prime time spots, basically giving wrestling little-to-no promotion or mainstream coverage... it's almost like they are resigned to having it there because they would miss the ratings, but they are embarrassed by it.

Kind of like a policeman looking the other way when a minor crime is being committed, just to avoid the paperwork of an arrest. He knows it's going on, and he doesn't like it, but it's more hassle than it's worth to stop it.

You won't get me disagreeing with you on these facts at all Carl. Although I would say that Sky treated it with a shrouded veil of respect a few years back, what with giving them PPVs over here when Sky didn't want to go down that road, and when Channel 4 dumped it mid-contract with Sky picking up the reminants of that contract.

What with the boom of Darts and Cricket again, WWE is slipping down the ratings quite badly. Even Rugby is starting to get close to its figures and I cn honestly see Sky pulling the plug at some point - maybe not on total coverage but certainly on the Raw live feed. They have the odd sponsor for the shows, which I guess helps them in their decision making regarding it.

As for PPV ratings, I would guess that there would be little or no information from BARB on the Box Office channels. Can you remember which ones we got for free over here recently, and I'll look it up. D2D was free and that got 76,000 viewers and that was the Live showing. The repeat didn't rate at all.

In fact, just looking at the ratings for December and it was a pretty rotten month for ratings for WWE as a whole. I think SD spiked at a high of about 100,000 for one edition, and Raw and ECW were even beaten by Live Pool coverage.

[NeanderCarl]

As far as them pulling the plug on the live Raw... highly unlikely. It's not as though WWE is bumping more important programming from the schedules at 2am on a Monday night, and there is no other programming that could conceivably outdraw live WWE wrestling in the early hours of the morning, especially when Sky Sports have three channels to play with. There will always be a spot for live WWE on Sky, until the day they pull the plug altogether.

I shouldn't worry though. TWC would pick WWE up in a heartbeat if the opportunity arose, and if WWE couldn't find another outlet, they would have no choice but to accept, probably at a much lower asking price too.

[NeanderCarl]

I love the fact that Channel 4 (probably the most risque terrestrial channel in the UK) decided to end their association with WWE as a result of the Mae Young stripshow at Royal Rumble 2000.... which was the first WWE event they ever showed. They still honoured their one year contract though.

If you remember, though, when the Channel 4 deal expired, Setanta Sports started showing the WWE events until eventually Sky Sports acquired the rights again.

[Kane Knight]

I know the first hour goes against 24 and Heroes, and I personally watch Heroes and tune in to Raw for the second hour.

This would be more an issue, however, had 24 not been a factor prior, or Heroes.

I, too, watch Heroes instead of Raw. However, Raw was back up to 3.6s with 24 and Heroes on, so I'd imagine this isn't a factor. Recently, not only have Raw's ratings returned, but they've varied very little despite factors like Idol, 24, etc. So to tank almost a million fans, or to gain almost a million fans, is quite the feat.

And they were doing good, too, so to gain 800K from Austin and such also means their programmin has otherwise dropped. Austin should bring in new fans, not maintain the old ones.

...In theory.

[Kane Knight]

Raw's hours last week divided by over 1 million people. 1.1 million, give or take a few thousands.