From the WWE Rumor Mill: Monday Night Raw viewership rebounds

What’s the story?

This week’s episode of WWE Raw averaged 2.813 million viewers, which was up from last week’s average of 2.759 but saw a huge loss of viewership by the third hour according to TV by the Numbers.

Approximately 700000 viewers stopped watching the third hour which was headlined by a Tag Team Championship Match featuring Ambrose and Rollins challenging the Bar.

In case you didn’t know...

The first hour of Raw kicked off with Roman Reigns being confronted by Jason Jordan and Samoa Joe for title shots and eventually led to Reigns defending his Intercontinental Championship against Jordan.

The second hour of Raw featured Paige making her in-ring return against Sasha Banks and a fatal 4way match between Cedric Alexander, Drew Gulak, Mustafa Ali and Tony Nese.

The final hour of Raw featured Asuka taking on Alicia Fox and Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins taking on Cesaro & Sheamus for the Raw Tag Team Championships in the main event.

The heart of the matter

This week’s Raw was up against the NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals as well as several NBA games. The following is the hourly breakdown of the Dec. 4 edition of Raw:

Hour One: 3.147 million

Hour Two: 2.862 million

Hour Three: 2.430 million

The change from hour one to hour two of the program resulted in 285,000 viewers tuning out. However, the biggest drop in viewership occurred in the third hour as Raw lost 432,000 viewers and the total drop in viewership from hour one to hour three resulted in a loss of over 700,000 viewers.

What’s next?

Many fans said that this week’s Raw was a good episode and the viewership did increase, but the severe drop in the third hour could indicate fans lost interest in the tag team match between The Shield and Cesaro & Sheamus; a feud that began four months ago.

Next week’s Raw will be up against the NFL game between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins that will begin 30 minutes into Raw’s broadcast. Raw will also be up against six NBA games – four of which will begin at the same time as Raw and two that will begin 30 minutes into the third hour.