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Even with Hurricane Sandy knocking out power all along the east coast and quite a few folks forced to evacuate from their homes, the total number of television viewers was up last night. Of course, a lot of those folks were watching storm coverage to keep themselves up to date.
Plenty were watching Monday Night Raw too but the show declined all throughout the three hours. On the whole, the episode averaged 4.1 million viewers with a 2.9 rating but here's the hourly breakdown:
Hour one: 4.31 million
Hour two: 4.22 million
Hour three: 3.78 million
That shows curiosity for Hell in a Cell results and fallout in the first hour and then a gradual decline to the show close where the Survivor Series main event was set up.
It should be alarming to WWE that its trend of losing viewers during each show has not only not slowed but has gotten worse as time has gone on. This was happening before the move to three hours but with it, it's just gotten worse.
The competition last night was easier to handle, with Monday Night Football on ESPN showcasing a relatively tame San Francisco 49ers vs. Arizona Cardinals game that was never competitive and basically over by halftime, right around the third hour of Raw. That game did just over 10 million viewers.
At some point, The Rock will return, as will Brock Lesnar, and the numbers will likely get the bump up Vince McMahon is sorely waiting for.
For results and the running live blog for Raw last night click here and for complete reactions to the show click here.