This week’s edition of Raw did a 3.6 cable rating, with a 5 share, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is the same number that the show did last week. The show did hours of 3.4 and 3.7. The highest quarter hour of the broadcast came from 10:00 to 10:15 for the Goldberg vs. HHH match, which did a 4.4. That means that the ratings went downward after that match ended and Raw lost viewers, which is always a potential problem when the main event is placed in the middle of the show.
What is interesting to note is that even though the show did the same rating two weeks in a row, they were down in their core demographic from last week’s show, with males 12 to 17 dropping from 4.6 to 2.8 this week and males 12-34 dropping from a 3.9 to a 3.3. It appears that an expanded edition of Fear Factor may have hurt Raw in drawing the young male demo. It should be noted that the young male audience has dropped from watching television so badly this fall season that programmers are actually questioning Nielsen’s methods of gathering their numbers. Nielsen said yesterday that their numbers are accurate and young males are watching less TV and spending more time on DVDs and video games