1st hour RAW IS WAR...2nd hour WAR ZONE
 

what was up with that?

The second hour was when the content got more 'mature' as per the main tone of the Attitude era. The first hour was more broad with the content. It was a nifty little trick at the time.

hmmm I didn't know that

All the Diva stuff (pretty much just Sable and Jaquelin for a while) took place almost exclusively in the second show. You could even spot the main events of the first show, on the off chance people actually tuned out at the time - they got something a full show.

They still do mid-events today, I believe. I don't watch anymore but I loved catching little production details.

I remember this. I miss it.

Its so they can count the ratings as 2 shows instead of just 1 show which can lead to more advertising revenue by charging more than the standard single rate.

2nd hour usually had the higher rating which let WWF/WWE charge more while also getting as many different advertisers as possible.

It also had to do with different TV rules during the primetime slot as the hours went by since you can do more edgier stuff later in the night than at 8pm or 9pm.

huh?

The first hour ended with a match. There was, to my memory, very few matches that went from one show to the next. So I considered the last match of the first hour 'mid-events'.

They dropped the WAR part because of 9/11 because they were in their full "American Patriots" mode at the time.