:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/imported_assets/906484/RAW_966_Photo_120.jpg)
Because of the weekend and the live Smackdown special last night (Nov. 29), ratings have been slow to trickle in for Raw this past Monday and Smackdown last Friday night.
First, let's look at the numbers for Raw (via PWTorch):
WWE Raw on Monday, November 28 scored a 3.23 rating, which followed a 3.24 rating last week and 3.25 rating on Nov. 14 to continue a consistent pattern.
However, average viewership was down five percent compared to last week's episode. Raw averaged 4.48 million viewers off a first hour average of 4.63 million viewers and second hour average of 4.33 million viewers.
It marks the sixth consecutive week and 11 out of the last 14 weeks that Raw's second hour viewership has declined from the first hour.
The reason that trend is so troubling for this week is because the entire show was essentially built around CM Punk defending his WWE championship in the big rematch from Survivor Series against Alberto Del Rio. The match was good, with a great finish, but the show couldn't sustain viewership to get to it. That means the declining viewership into the second hour cannot necessarily be blamed on lack of interest in either Punk or Del Rio.
Now let's look at the Smackdown ratings from last Friday night.
WWE Smackdown on Friday, November 25 the day after Thanksgiving scored a 1.87 rating, down from a 1.99 rating the week before. The holiday week episode was close to the yearly average of a 1.92 rating.
Smackdown's viewership held firm with an average of 2.9 million viewers, the same as the past two weeks and the yearly average.
In short, despite the holiday, Smackdown's viewership held up fairly well. Key demographics were all solid and this gives hope to a good rating for the live "Holiday Special" that aired last night.
Of course, the show last Friday was a million times better than the show last night, but I digress.
Perhaps the most troubling trend of all is that neither Raw nor Smackdown did much at all to build to the TLC pay-per-view taking place in just a few weeks.