Extreme Rules fallout didn’t help WWE Raw viewership

Television is rapidly changing, what with streaming and advancements in how humanity consumes its entertainment. It’s difficult, then, to determine just how to look at viewership for Monday Night Raw.

This week’s episode drew 1.63 million viewers, one of the lowest in the show’s history. We’ve been seeing that a lot lately, of course. This time, though, it comes when a match was held off a pay-per-view for the sole purpose of helping ratings coming off said pay-per-view, and it did next to no good.

That match, Big Show vs. Randy Orton, didn’t do so well, as the Wrestling Observer points out:

It was also heavily built around the Randy Orton vs. Big Show unsanctioned match that had been promoted for weeks. The third hour, with Orton vs. Big Show, did a 0.42 in 18-49, the lowest rated hour in 18-49 in the show’s history.

Here’s the hourly breakdown:

Hour one: 1.74 million
Hour two: 1.61 million
Hour three: 1.54 million

We’re just not used to seeing numbers like this from WWE’s longtime flagship program. There may not be as much to make of that as it seems, considering the landscape and how the show performs relative to other programming in the same time slot, but it’s at least notable for what viewership is like these days.

Next week’s show will feature the top championship matches from the top two titles on the brand.