Declining Viewership: Which Fans and Why?

Hi, Scott.


With Raw’s viewership hitting 3.23M (the second-lowest non-football viewership since 1997, according to the Observer), it looks like whatever Mania season buzz/boost there was is now gone.

Some questions for you:

1- Which fan base do you think is more responsible for the post Rumble/Mania drop in viewers this year: "hardcores" or "casuals"/families?

2- These may depend on your answer to 1, but what do you think of these explanations?

A: Hardcores have tuned out because Roman is "the guy," even if wrestlers like Owens and AJ and NXT callups are getting some attention now.

B: Casuals don’t think any of the guys getting attention now – Roman but also guys like Owens and AJ – are really top level stars and are waiting for people like Orton and Cena to return.

C: The boost was due to interest in part-timers like Lesnar and Taker, so those new/returning viewers bailed once those names left.

D: There isn’t that much interest in yet another McMahon family squabble for control of the company.

Thanks.

​It’s not like they were doing gangbusters numbers between Rumble and Wrestlemania as it is. There was a slight uptick for the Shane stuff, which would be 100% casual fans, but really the entire Roman Reigns story post-Rumble has been one giant flop from start to finish. The actual drop in ratings I would definitely attribute to a combination of B & C, and unfortunately B is going to be a side-effect of trying to have a rebuilding season. That being said, Roman is not the guy that people want to watch the company build around, so I don’t think there’s a magic bullet to bring things back up again. ​Basically we’re just gonna have to wait for Aurora Rose Levesque to be old enough to ascend to the top of the card in 10 years or whatever.