WWE's Memorial Day Raw continued an unfavorable six-year trend of posting the lowest average viewership of the year. One would have to go back to 2011 to find a Memorial Day Raw that just barely avoided the same fate.
WWE Chairman Vince McMahon may want to consider moving Raw back to a two-hour show.
Credit: WWE.comEven more unsettling, Raw's annual low in each of the last six years has only become lower with the exception of 2013.
| Air Date | Average Viewership | Compared to Prior Week |
| May 29, 2017 | 2.613 Million | Down from 2.615 Million; 2017 low |
| May 30, 2016 | 3.22 Million | Down from 3.27 Million; 2016 low |
| May 25, 2015 | 3.60 Million | Down from 3.99 Million; 2015 low |
| May 26, 2014 | 3.60 Million | Down from 3.76 Million; 2014 low |
| May 27, 2013 | 3.99 Million | Down from 4.08 Million; 2013 low |
| May 28, 2012 | 3.91 Million | Down by 750,000 Viewers; 2012 low |
WWE moved to a three-hour format in 2012, and since then, viewership totals have seen year-to-year dropoffs. Raw's negative ratings pattern since moving to three hours indicates viewer burnout, and it just might be time for the promotion to consider moving back to two hours.
Raw's viewership from 2016 to 2017 has decreased an average of 17.2%. From the beginning of the month to the end of the month, Raw's viewership has eroded by nine percent. Through its first four weeks, SmackDown Live has done a slightly better job at retaining its audience with Week 4 viewership 1.2% higher than where it was a the beginning of May.
WWE has used gimmicks in the past, like Raw: Old School, to bolster Raw ratings.
Credit: WWE.comRaw's three-hour format was mostly a financial decision made to increase WWE's television rights fees. These fees ballooned by 70% in 2014 following WWE's multi-year deal with NBC Universal, which agreed to pay $150 million annually to air its flagship shows. Last year, during the Bernstein Global Future of Media & Telecommunications Summit, WWE CFO George Barrios noted its U.S. television deal expires in 2019.
| 2016 | Viewership | 2017 | Viewership |
| Week 1 | 3.430 Million | Week 1 | 2.870 Million |
| Week 2 | 3.230 Million | Week 2 | 2.696 Million |
| Week 3 | 3.190 Million | Week 3 | 2.751 Million |
| Week 4 | 3.270 Million | Week 4 | 2.615 Million |
| Week 5 | 3.220 Million | Week 5 | 2.613 Million |
| Average Viewership | 3.270 Million | 2.709 Million |
With a fresh round of negotiations coming up in less than two years, and WWE failing to garner significant interest from other networks in 2014, USA stands to have the leverage to land a more network-friendly deal once again. Still, WWE is the reason USA Network enjoyed an entire decade of being the most-watched cable channel on television. And in a changing world, where American politics has become just as entertaining as pro wrestling itself, Fox News ended USA Network's dynasty in 2016 thanks to its decidedly incessant coverage of the polarizing President.
| WWE Raw | Viewership | WWE SmackDown Live | Viewership |
| Week 1 | 2.870 Million | Week 1 | 2.300 Million |
| Week 2 | 2.696 Million | Week 2 | 2.348 Million |
| Week 3 | 2.751 Million | Week 3 | 2.175 Million |
| Week 4 | 2.615 Million | Week 4 | 2.328 Million |
| Week 5 | 2.613 Million | Week 5 | N/A |
| Average Viewership (First four weeks) | 2.733 Million | 2.29 Million |
As WWE's viewership keeps falling with no bottom established yet, it's quite possible that viewership totals could sink to alarmingly low sub-two million levels by the time it's in the market for a new television deal.
It's unclear whether or not the slow death of television, mixed with USA losing its stranglehold on as the No. 1 cable network, will lead to the type of desperation from USA that would put WWE in an advantageous bargaining position. But, should the two sides continue their longtime relationship in 2019, it's tough to imagine WWE getting significantly more than the $150 million per year deal signed in 2014.
Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline pointed out a worrisome stat as WWE's ratings have seen significant declines among teenage boys, who typically represent WWE's core audience:
"They're down 20 percent (from this time last year), they're down 40 percent in teenagers, even more than that in teenage boys, but they're down in every single demo. Significantly."
Meltzer followed up on the decline, citing Raw's increased content as a reason:
"I think that the big culprit is that the show is too long. Following WWE has gone from being a fun hobby to work...your hardcore fans love the fact that there's more product than ever before, but the casual person does not want to devote five hours [a week] or eight hours for pay-per-view weeks."
One positive of WWE's three-hour format is that it provides a national television platform for the cruiserweight division, but even that project can be safely considered a flop at this point. Raw's cruiserweight segments draw the lowest total viewership on YouTube each week, a trend that continued last week with under 150,000 viewers for a match between Aryia Daivari and Akria Tozawa. 205 Live—which airs in front of a disinterested crowd following SmackDown Live—also appears to be suffering due to similar burnout issues.
With a clear case of too much content, I'm not sure WWE wants to see just how low viewership can go. When it brings its poor ratings trends to the bargaining table in 2019, WWE's next television deal might not even justify the added revenue of an extra hour of Raw each week.
In 2019, it's possible Raw goes back to two hours both as an attempt to reverse its viewership woes and as a means to put itself in better position for future negotiations.
