Big football night contributes to record ratings low for Raw

Monday Night Football featured probably its biggest game of the year on Dec. 6, and the New England Patriots won a game that went down to the wire over the Buffalo Bills to take control of the playoff race. WWE knew it had competition that was even stiffer than it usually does during the NFL season, and loaded up Raw with a steel cage opener, a Hall of Famer, and a championship main event they played up as a possible cinderella story for a fan favorite.

We’ll never know how Raw would have done without those big angles. With them — and with MNF enjoying its best night of the season since its opener in September at nearly 15 million people watching & a demo rating of 4.49 on ESPN and ESPN2 (roughly 4 million more viewers and a 46% better 18-49 number than on Nov. 29) — WWE saw their average viewership fall nearly 5% from the week prior, to 1.6 million. The 18-49 year old demographic rating plummeted almost 24% from last Monday. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics reports the .35 average in the demo is the lowest recorded rating in Raw’s history.

The 10pm ET hour, which pitted (among other things) Liv Morgan vs. Becky Lynch against the end of Pats vs. Bills, was the low point. Here are the hourly numbers:

Hour One: 1.669 million / .38
Hour Two: 1.636 million / .35
Hour Three: 1.494 million / .33

It would be one thing if it were just football, but Bravo’s Below Deck also beat Raw in the ratings this week with a .40 in the key demo.

Next Monday won’t be an easier, as ESPN will have another rivalry game with playoff implications in the Arizona Cardinals vs. the Los Angeles Rams. Thus far, WWE has only announced a tag team #1 contenders match.

We’ll see how that goes for them.

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