“New Era” Raw ratings back down to “Really Old Era” levels

The continuation of the “New Era” of Raw didn’t ended up being a positive factor in the ratings as the Monday, May 9th edition of the show did 3.23 million viewers, down six percent from last week. It was the second lowest rating for a show outside of football season since 1997.

A week ago, the combination of a post-PPV show and the first Stephanie & Shane McMahon show did 3.43 million viewers. The modern era low for a show outside of football season or a major holiday was 3.12 million viewers which was set two weeks ago.

Dancing With the Stars, featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant, remained the most-watched show on television with 11.33 million viewers.

Raw was third on cable for the night, trailing two NBA playoff games on TNT. The first, which went head-to-head with Raw, did 4.01 milliion viewers while the late night game, which started just before Raw ended, did 6.16 million viewers.

In this week’s case, the culprit was that the audience at the start was lower than usual. The second hour was the high point, although the first two hours were virtually identical. There was a third hour drop, but it wasn’t as bad as some have been. The real story of the low number wasn’t people tuning out, but that they didn’t tune in at their usual levels to begin with.

The three hours were:

• 8 p.m. 3.35 million viewers
• 9 p.m. 3.36 million viewers
• 10 p.m. 3.01 million viewers

Subscribers can access Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez’s Wrestling Observer Radio Raw report here.