Donald Trump’s stint at World Wrestling Entertainment didn’t last long.
The colorful business personality participated in a promotional stunt that began last week when he purchased USA Network’s “Monday Night Raw” show from WWE topper Vince McMahon in a scripted storyline. Company dubbed it the “Trump era.” [...]
It also was a way to boost “Raw’s” ratings. The stunt worked: “Raw” delivered a 4.5 rating/7 share, with 6.8 million overall viewers tuning in. The household rating was up 25% over the June 8 broadcast, which was watched by 5.5 million. It was the most-watched episode of “Raw” in more than seven years.
via Variety.
You forgot to mention, this was a commerical free, 2 hour show, which would help any shows ratings.
But isn’t pro wrestling on USA merely a two hour commercial for the numerous Pay-Per-Views?
Ten years ago during the glory days of Steve Austin and the Rock a rating like this would have been beyond terrible.
Corey3rd, sure it’s a commercial, but it isn’t “merely” one. The WWE Raw show on USA and Friday Night Smackdown on MyNet both are big moneymakers themselves.
“Ten years ago during the glory days of Steve Austin and the Rock a rating like this would have been beyond terrible.”
I’m not sure cable or the WWE in general have ever been in a position where an average of 6.8 million viewers and a second hour of 7.3 million viewers can be described as beyond terrible.
CTV is the supernetwork of Canada…
it airs such hits as Grey’s Anatomy, The Mentalist, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Criminal Minds, Desperate Housewives, Ghost Whisperer, American Idol, Dancing With The Stars, Cold Case, Law & Order: SVU, So You Think You Can Dance, Flashpoint , ER, The Listener, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Spectacle: Elvis Costello With…, The View, Live with Regis & Kelly, Oprah, Dr. Phil, General Hospital, The Bold & the Beautiful, Merlin, The Amazing Race, Southland, Degrassi: TNG, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and will be airing the Vampire Diaries, America’s Next Top Model, and So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Dr. OZ in the fall as well
CTV’s sister channel ‘A’ has a pretty impressive slate as well with Two and Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, Gossip Girl, Castle, Monk, Mad Men, Without a Trace, Fringe, Private Practice, Medium, Law & Order, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried and will be airing Hank, The Middle, The Beautiful Life, and Eastwick in the Fall
Their parent company CTVglobemedia owns an assortment of cablers that include:
MTV, MTV2, Muchmusic, MuchMore, Much Loud, Much Vibe, and Much Punch, MuchMoreRetro, (the premium music oriented/celebrity/urban lifestyle channels of Canada)
Star! (E! Counterpart)
SexTV (self-explanatory…mostly documentaries)
CourtTV
Book Television
Discovery Channel, Discovery HD, Discovery Civilization Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Health, Discovery Kids, Travel + Escape
TSN, TSN2, RDS, ESPN Classics (English and French counterparts to ESPN, ESPN2)
The Comedy Network (Comedy Central Counterpart)
Space (Sci-Fi Counterpart)
BNN (CNBC Counterpart)
TV Land
Access
CTV News Channel (MSNBC)
NHL TV
Fashion Television
Bravo! (demi counterpart to Bravo in the US)
Too bad it didn’t beat Jon and Kate’s announcement.
That’s insane. It didn’t even get this high around WrestleMania time, and that’s when the show was actually good.
Alex, yes 10 years ago if they drew a 4.5 rating it would have been beyond terrible and they would have gone into crisis mode. During 1999 and 2000 they only drew below a 6.0 rating a couple times and never ever close to a 4.5. I am not exagerating. It would have been terrible.
David, comparing show ratings from long ago is a violation of the Gunsmoke Rule.
You have been warned.
People forget the viewers were not that high for cable back in those days. The 5s and 6s the WWE were getting were only like 8 million viewers. If they gotten those cable ratings now in days then they would be closer to 9-10 million viewers. Big difference.
That’s an fantastic number considering the show was based on an angle that came out of nowhere last week.
Hot Pocket, that’s not quite how it works. You are right that the same ratings mean more viewers today, but only because the entire TV population has grown, not because cable viewing has grown. Ratings are based on everyone with a TV, there are not separate cable ratings.
“Alex, yes 10 years ago if they drew a 4.5 rating it would have been beyond terrible and they would have gone into crisis mode. During 1999 and 2000 they only drew below a 6.0 rating a couple times and never ever close to a 4.5. I am not exagerating. It would have been terrible.”
Which as Hot Pocket has said is ultimately meaningless because the household share doesn’t mean the same now that it meant then. The WWE hasn’t lost more than 50% of their audience over the past decade, which is what the shares suggest.
Wrestlemania generates about $25 million from pay-per-view cash. While Vince doesn’t give away Raw, the show is geared to generate interest for the live events and the pay-per-views. The whole point of the show is to build up the matches that you have to pay $50 to watch on TV.
and there is a need for ad breaks – some of us enjoy being able to get a beer or use the bathroom without missing the action.
Yes Hotpocket you are right with that estimate… the WWE RAW show from 1999 that drew an 8.1 rating drew aproximently 10.7 million viewers and todays audience that would be over 12 mill!
I am very impressed with how well the WWE did on Monday night, they had stif competition against Jon and Kate and the Closer. The second hour definitly beat the Closer and I am for sure RAW did not come close to the divorce announcement.
A 4.5 rating is very good and expect Trump to appear more because the average RAW rating for 2009 is 3.65.
The rating was all down to it being commercial free. A normal show with Trump may have goten a 4.0 but nothing more.
Shane, and others, there’s no way to prove either one of us right or wrong, but I doubt that the ratings for the Trump WWE episode were influenced substantially by its being commercial free.
Shane, I’ve been told the “commercial-free” part of it had nothing to do with the ratings boost, but I’m not sure if that’s true or not. With the media being so stupid and gullible, I’m not sure what they are going to do with Trump for the next few weeks or so, but it should be interesting to tune in. It’s good news for WWE too that this is happening with no Batista, HBK, or Ric Flair, who is still rumored to be the new “GM” of Raw.
“and there is a need for ad breaks – some of us enjoy being able to get a beer or use the bathroom without missing the action.”
Out of the 2 hour, commercial free show, how much actual wrestling action was there? Former wrestler Lance Storm regularly posts updates on his website about this number and unless there’s a gimmick match like Iron Man or Last Man Standing, an average 2 hour show is lucky to get 30 minutes of actual wrestling action, regardless of whether it’s WWE or TNA.
What was nice about the 2 hour commercial free Raw was that for the first time in a long, long time, they didn’t go to commercials during a match. In many ways, it was like a free Pay Per View in terms of no interruptions during the matches. That’s my opinion on why the ratings were so much higher than normal.
I find ad breaks in the middle of a match so annoying and I’m sure I’m not the only one. WWE’s Smackdown and TNA’s Impact are taped shows, which I feel should not show adverts in the middle of a match because they can be edited before broadcast. WWE’s Raw and ECW are live shows, so I guess it can’t be helped sometimes because it’s live TV after all.
ECW isn’t live
and Corey3rd, you could have just went to the bathroom during one of Vince’s “Alice in Wonderland” promos
like we’re really going to miss anything during the commercial breaks in a match that they didn’t intend on us missing.
When I was a kid, I’d watch the Mid-Atlantic Championship wrestling show. Seemed like every month, they’d have a major fight right before the end of the show. And the announcers would swear this fight would go on for hours. Finally we got tickets to see a taping at WRAL’s studio and at the end of the show one of those fights broke out. My brother and I were pumped to see how long these battles lasted. We feared we’d miss breakfast. the floor manager shouted, “We’re off.” the wrestlers rolled out of the ring and went back to the dressing rooms.
@Bill Gorman I have studied ratings for Raw for years and you would be stunned how many people tune out at commercial breaks during a normal Raw broadcast