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.