Raw drew another historically bad rating on Oct. 18

We’ll see how Raw fares when it only has football airing head-to-head against it. Because for the second straight week, WWE competed against both Monday Night Football and the Major League Baseball Playoffs. And for the second straight week, the results included some of the lowest numbers in the show’s history.

The good news on Oct. 18 was that overall viewership increased from the week before. The audience of 1.593 million was less than 1% larger than Oct. 11’s, but bigger is bigger. The other positive is that Raw’s average rating in the 18 - 49 year old demographic put it in the top ten of cable originals on the night, behind only coverage of a very good Tennessee Titans vs. Buffalo Bills football game, and a less thrilling Boston Red Sox blowout of the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series.

Problem is that average rating wasn’t just 7% lower than the previous episode. Per Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston, the .39 was the worst number since at least 2012, and quite possibly in Raw’s almost 30 year history. Even the slightly improved viewership number was historically bad - the sixth lowest in the last nine years.

Here are the hourly numbers, which at least had an encouraging trend in the demo...

Hour One: 1.577 million / .38
Hour Two: 1.624 million / .40
Hour Three: 1.577 million / .40

There won’t be any baseball next Monday (even if they go the full seven games, the two LCS will be done, and the World Series doesn’t start until Tues., Oct. 26), so we’ll see how Raw fares against “just” football.

For complete results and this week’s Raw live blog click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For video highlights of the show click here.

Numbers via Showbuzz Daily