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The most recent episode of RAW, which included the return of Kevin Owens, saw another big drop in the viewership figures as the show averaged 1.757 million viewers, which is the second-lowest figure in WWE history. The record-low show (1.686 million), was the May 4th episode of RAW.
The hourly breakdown of the ratings revealed a noticeable drop in the third hour. The second hour drew 1.810 million viewers while the third hour had 1.644 million.
Kevin Owens returned to RAW at the stroke of the third hour and there has been speculation about the Prizefighter being responsible for the alarming drop.
KO was the lead-in from hours two to three and many people have pinned the blame on the Superstar. Sportskeeda's Tom Colohue was asked by host Korey Gunz whether the company blames Kevin Owens for the ratings fall and if the dismal numbers would change their stance with regards to KO being pushed as one of the top babyfaces on RAW.
Kevin Owens is expected to be the second biggest babyface on RAW behind Drew McIntyre and such a drop could negatively affect his standing in the company.
Kevin Owens is not to blame, WWE is not holding anyone responsible for recent drops
Tom Colohue explained that WWE is going through a phase in which the company is testing out a few things. He did note that the company doesn't blame Owens. In fact, WWE is not blaming anyone for the viewership drop due to the existing circumstances. The officials expect record-low ratings during these times.
Tom even asked the fans on Twitter about the Kevin Owens' segment and match and the reactions towards the former Universal Champion were positive.
It should also be noted that the figure was an average of the third hour and the viewers may have turned off halfway through the hour, which may have made Owens look bad.
Tom explained the following on the latest Dropkick DiSKussions episode:
WWE are testing a few things right now. I asked this question to fans on my Twitter feed to see what they felt and certainly, they were positive towards Kevin Owens. And I was as well, you have to consider the last hour, it's obviously quite late but in addition, it's the average of the hour, so people could have turned off halfway through the hour and it still looks bad on Kevin Owens because he was that lead in to hook viewers and keep them.
The company doesn't think it was Kevin Owens to blame here. They are not blaming anyone because of everything that's going on and they are expecting record-low ratings but if they are looking at key negatives, one thing that was mentioned to me was that a lot of people, unfortunately, turned off when it was the axe throwing contest, even though I personally thought it was alright.
If any quotes from this article are used, please add an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling and embed the Dropkick DiSKussions video in the article.
