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WWE Raw ratings down against Monday Night Football season debut

Going against the opening night of Monday Night Football, Raw last night fell to 1.67 million viewers and a 0.43 rating in 18-49, the latter being among the lowest marks in the history of the show.

Raw finished sixth for the night behind the Las Vegas Raiders vs. Baltimore Ravens game, as well as the pre-game show, the post-game show, the SportsCenter that aired at 12:33 a.m., and the Countdown show that aired before the start of the game.

WWE had torn up the planned show built around a Tag Team title match, to put on the Bobby Lashley vs. Randy Orton WWE title match that was scheduled for Extreme Rules. Then Big E promised to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase. This led to the unusual situation where the third hour was the largest of the night. Based on the first hour doing an 0.40, it’s pretty clear that Raw would have done well below that figure on a three-hour average and well below 1.6 million viewers had they gone with the planned show.

The game aired on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2. On ESPN the game did 7.57 million viewers and a 2.76 rating in 18-49. On ESPN2 the game did 800,000 viewers and a 0.32. The ABC number is not available at press time.

The top rated entertainment show of the night, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, did 768,000 viewers and a 0.33.

Raw was 14th for the night in total viewers.

The big question becomes if AEW Dynamite on Wednesday can top Raw’s 0.43 rating in 18-49. It is possible, but not a lock, as two weeks ago Dynamite did a 0.37 before going to 0.53 with the Dynamite debuts of Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, and Ruby Soho on AEW television last week.

It was the lowest in the 18-49 demo number since July 5.

As compared to last week with a much weaker marquee show, Raw was down 10 percent in viewers, 17 percent in 18-49, and 25 percent in 18-34.

This also broke the nine-week streak where Raw had beaten its previous year’s number. It was down one percent from last year in viewers, but down 14 percent in 18-49 and down seven percent in 18-34.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 1.67 million viewers
9 p.m. 1.63 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.70 million viewers