News

Greg DeMarco’s Ratings Analysis for WWE Raw (4/29/19): Hour 3 Drops Out Of The Cable Top 5

What does this dip in ratings really mean?

Published

5 years ago

April 30, 2019

Greg DeMarco

Greg DeMarco chimes in with your WWE ratings for the April 29 edition of Raw. What does it really tell us? Greg tells you!

Ratings are in for the April 29 edition of Raw, and it’s not the best news. Let’s start with the hourly breakdown:

Hour 1: 2.336 million viewers, .78 rating in the important 18-49 demographic
Hour 2: 2.241 million, .74 in the 18-49 demo
Hour 3: 1.898 million, .64 in the 18-49 demo

(Available via ShowbuzzDaily)

The average of 2.158 million is a series low (non-holiday edition), but that’s not really the big story here. We don’t know the HUT levels (meaning households using television) to know what the overall rating truly means. Raw came in 4th, 5th, and 6th for the evening, behind NBA Playoff Basketball (#1 & #2) as well as Love & Hip Hop Atlanta 8 (which has overcome Raw in the 18-49 demographic before). In terms of overall viewership, Raw would still be 3-5 in the rankings outside of the news shows, and 1-3 without NBA basketball.

But what does it really mean, Greg?

It means Raw fell out of the Top 5, which is the most important metric. The Top 5 measures you against your true competition–shows airing at the same times on the same night, on the same medium (cable television). THAT is what matters to advertisers. Advertisers and networks aren’t going to measure Raw against episodes from 5, 10, or 20 years ago, not matter how many internet fans do it. And while we don’t know the HUT levels for last night, everyone in the cable rankings are dealing with the same number of households utilizing television, so it’s a level playing field there. Keep in mind, without NBA basketball, WWE is still 60% of the top 5.

Also keep in mind that it’s one week. It’s one week after a decently received Raw, too. Ratings usually dip post-WrestleMania, as the weather gets warmer and people spend more time away from their televisions. One week isn’t a trend, and a trend matters. For now, it’s something to keep an eye on. So it’s important, just not THAT important. Yet.

We’ll have 24-hour YouTube numbers on Wednesday, and we’ll see how it compares.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

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AEW Coverage

Mitchell’s AEW Continental Classic Update! (11/27/23)

What a start to the tournament!

Published

5 months ago

November 27, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Did your picks win points?

The AEW Continental Classic is underway, with almost everyone competing. Check in here if you haven’t seen the winners and losers of week 1!

Here are your Gold League standings!

Jon Moxley: 1-0, 3 points
Swerve Strickland: 1-0, 3 points
Jay White: 1-0, 3 points
Rush: 0-1, 0 points
Mark Briscoe: 0-1, 0 points.
Jay Lethal: 0-1, 0 points

Here are your Blue League standings!

Brody King: 1-0, 3 points
Claudio Castagnoli: 1-0, 3 points
Daniel Garcia: 0-1, 0 points
Eddie Kingston: 0-1, 0 points
Bryan Danielson: Yet to Compete
Andrade El Idolo: Yet to Compete

My Thoughts:

Nothing too crazy, nothing too wild, this tournament only just got started. The only disappointing point is that they could not get Bryan “cleared to compete” Saturday night. Not sure how much of that is shoot given the bad eye, but this was kinda the problem of wanting him in the tournament over tons of other choices. Bryan wants to face Okada for WrestleKingdom 18, how is Bryan supposed to do that at his best if he’s also gonna be in a round robin, doing five top level matches in about as many weeks? And it takes away from Andrade being able to do something. Also a little surprised we didn’t even hear from Andrade on Saturday.

Now as we heard on Saturday, round two’s matches are set. Gold League will see Mark Briscoe VS Rush, White VS Swerve, and of course, Moxley VS Lethal. Nice variety there, a couple 0-1 guys facing off, as well as two 1-0 guys, and then 1-0 VS 0-1. No offense to Lethal, but he feels like an 0-2 going up against Moxley. Hard to call the other ones but that’s the fun of it. Meanwhile, Blue League sees Brody VS Claudio in a showdown to be 2-0, then Bryan and Andrade finally jump in, Bryan against Eddie and Andrade against Garcia. Sadly, feels like Eddie and Garcia are going 0-2, no way Tony Khan is booking Bryan and Andrade to lose their first shots.

In fact, that could be half the reason they did wait on those two, that’s almost too good for just a first round opener. But I still would’ve done it, same as NJPW does stuff like that for round robins, which this is all modeled after anyway.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

AEW Coverage

AEW announces Continental Classic entrants

The C2 is set!

Published

5 months ago

November 22, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Tony Khan Reveals the Blue and Gold “Leagues!”

Originally livestreamed, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone officially announced the twelve total entrants and divided them into the two round robin blocks known as the “Blue League” and “Gold League.” If you don’t feel like sifting through the almost 30 minute video, the groups are:

Blue League

Bryan Danielson
Andrade El Idolo
Brody King
Claudio Castagnoli
Daniel Garcia
Eddie Kingston

Gold League

Jon Moxley
Swerve Strickland
Rush
Mark Briscoe
Jay Lethal
Jay White

Tony Khan also explains the rules for the Continental Classic:

Every match has a 20 minute time limit
The winner of each match earns 3 points, losers earn 0, 1 point for a draw
EVERYONE ELSE is banned from ringside for true 1v1 action

Eddie Kingston also joined the selection special as his “life’s work” is on the line in this tournament, both the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line as part of the modern day North American Triple Crown Eddie, Tony Khan, AEW, ROH and NJPW are looking to create together. Gold League competes tonight on Dynamite while Blue League will have their start this Saturday on Collision. Look for more articles like this one to keep up with the Continental Classic standings over the next six weeks of tournament action!

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!