Bryan Danielson v. Sheamus LOSES 1 MILLION VIEWERS

[tamalesteve]

Raw on 3/7 did a 3.92 rating and 5.78 million viewers. The show did a 3.42 rating in Males 18-34 and 68% men. It was the highest rated Raw since August 24, 2009, where a show with Floyd Mayweather Jr., as guest host did a 3.93 rating. The show actually did a lower rating in the second hour than the first, which is a rare occurrence. The show did 68.1% males. It was the highest rated show on cable that night. It was also the highest rated show, broadcast or cable, among Male teenagers (4.5 rating).

In the segment-by-segment, the Undertaker interview opened at 3.91, so the people were there at the start. The brawl and Randy Orton vs. David Otunga match gained 71,000 viewers, which is good. Christian vs. Brodus Clay and the Sunny video gained 219,000 viewers. I’d credit that to the Sunny video as that was something nobody would turn the channel during. Plus it did a 5.2 among teenage boys which blew away everything else on the show except the Austin segment, and no way that’s to see Christian vs. Clay. It also says something that they market heavily to the idea of getting teenagers to watch the hot girls wrestle and it doesn’t make a difference, and some videotape of a woman most of them never saw before who had a great look when she was 23 worked like nobody’s business this very week. Amazing. Even more so, Eve Torres vs. Nikki Bella lost 610,000 viewers (5.2 to 4.2 among those teenage boys turning it off). That’s bad no matter what time of the show. The JBL/Michael Cole/Steve Austin segment gained 961,00 viewers to a 4.46 rating, which is the best quarter hour in a long time. In 12-17 Males, they were up from 4.2 to 5.5 (81% of teenagers watching were male–a ridiculous number for Raw so that tells you what audience Austin was drawing and the key is, that is the audience that wasn’t even around for the most part when Austin was at his peak) and in 18-49 Males they were up 3.1 to 4.2 for the Austin segment. With 18-49 Males, nothing came close all night. Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus lost 1,102,000 viewers, which is the largest number of viewers tuning out of a segment on any show we’ve monitored in years and years. It’s totally clear this audience came to see Austin, and once they saw him, they left, and only came back at 11 p.m. thinking something big was going to happen whether it’s Austin, Rock or just the Cena promo, and I think it’s a combination of all three. C.M. Punk vs. R-Truth, and the Shawn Michaels promo and a Vickie Guerrero interview lost 119,000 viewers. John Morrison vs. Dolph Ziggler lost 43,000 viewers. The promise of John Cena knocking out Rock in the promo department and Miz attack did excellent numbers, gaining 965,000 viewers. Could be that, or perhaps people may have expected Austin back one more time, but they did a 4.25 overrun.

Source: Today's WO.

[Deleted]

To be fair, they didn't miss much.

[cookiethemonster]

They need to make Bryan Danielson go into the American Dragon heel gimmick.

[worldsstrongestman]

And I quote "Nobody wants to see a NERD!! None of his nerd friends own tv's. In fact he doesn't have friends because he's a NERD!"


Just kidding. I hope WWE doesn't punish Bryan or Sheamus for this by keeping them off the PPV.

[Dave at the Movies]

Anyone else notice they dropped the King Sheamus gimmick and have him come out in his T Shirt? Who in the hell did he piss off?

[The Deadly Snake]

Mar 10, 2011 4:46:43 GMT -5 Dave at the Movies said:

Anyone else notice they dropped the King Sheamus gimmick and have him come out in his T Shirt? Who in the hell did he piss off?

[rnrk supports BLM]

That's an extremely skewed way of spinning the numbers, considering the segment came immediately after Austin's heavily-promoted appearance (which is unquestionably what most of the audience had tuned in to see).

Hell, according to the quoted statistics, the next two segments after Bryan/Sheamus had even fewer viewers.

[celticjobber]

Mar 10, 2011 4:46:43 GMT -5 Dave at the Movies said:

Anyone else notice they dropped the King Sheamus gimmick and have him come out in his T Shirt? Who in the hell did he piss off?

I thought dropping the King Sheamus outfit with that goofy crown was a big improvement.

[The Deadly Snake]

Mar 10, 2011 4:52:33 GMT -5 rnrk supports BLM said:

That's an extremely skewed way of spinning the numbers, considering the segment came immediately after Austin's heavily-promoted appearance (which is unquestionably what most of the audience had tuned in to see).

Hell, according to the quoted statistics, the next two segments after Bryan/Sheamus had even fewer viewers.

I like BD, but this proves one thing... WWE messed up. They could have a badass heel with Sheamus, and they made him Miz-lite, without any of Miz's smarmyness.

It made no sense. WWE: Shooting themselves in the foot since 2002

[Alex Shelley]

Yeah, I'd rather just see the raw (...oh God pun sorry) numbers instead of having them all bunched up in a paragraph so I could see them for myself. Anybody have the quarter hour numbers? I tried finding them and all I could find was that mumbo jumbo above.

Have to agree with rnrk though, just from what we're given it shouldn't be surprising that people left after Stone Cold did.

Sheamus and Daniel Bryan did not lose the viewers. Not having Stone Cold lost the viewers.

It's amazing how easily numbers can be used to deceive people. People see numbers and feel inclined to believe what they're seeing because numbers are facts. Numbers may be facts but the way the numbers are used and interpreted is highly susceptible to manipulation by biased people.

[The Deadly Snake]

Mar 10, 2011 4:59:12 GMT -5 Alex Shelley said:

Yeah, I'd rather just see the raw (...oh God pun sorry) numbers instead of having them all bunched up in a paragraph so I could see them for myself. Anybody have the quarter hour numbers? I tried finding them and all I could find was that mumbo jumbo above.

Have to agree with rnrk though, just from what we're given it shouldn't be surprising that people left after Stone Cold did.

Sheamus and Daniel Bryan did not lose the viewers. Not having Stone Cold lost the viewers.

It's amazing how easily numbers can be used to deceive people. People see numbers and feel inclined to believe what they're seeing because numbers are facts. Numbers may be facts but the way the numbers are used and interpreted is highly susceptible to manipulation by biased people.

You know what else that proves? That Stone Cold still draws, but not much else on RAW does.

But why they don't draw? That's up for debate. I've said my piece over the years on why they don't draw, and I've been proven correct..... WWE messed up. It's nothing wrong with the performers. WWE just can't build anyone properly anynmore.

[Ryushinku]

So it dropped big after the Austin segment?

Well colour me utterly shocked to hell and back.

[andy82]

Mar 10, 2011 4:58:35 GMT -5 The Deadly Snake said:

I like BD, but this proves one thing... WWE messed up. They could have a badass heel with Sheamus, and they made him Miz-lite, without any of Miz's smarmyness.

This! Sheamus was getting over as a badass heel and I thought had a solid 2nd reign as champion, then as you said, they turned him into a coward, buried him with Santino & Morrison (Although the latter would have made sense if they'd elevated JoMo into Main Event, instead of what appears to be him now jobbing to Ziggles) and given him the king gimmick.

And on the other hand, you've got Daniel Bryan who has had a lame duck US Championship reign (then again, when was the last time that meant anything), given a crappy storyline to get the Bella Twins over and defended the belt, what, twice?

Can't be surprised if people don't care for a match if it's between two guys that WWE don't care about themselves.

[Spankymac is sick of the swiss]

When you book guys like afterthoughts, the fans and viewers will TREAT them like afterthoughts.

[FUNK_US/BRODUS]

I think a million people tuned in to see Steve Austin, and then tuned back out again.

Lets face it, Bryan vs Sheamus doesnt give off much hope for captivating viewers. You have a guy who at the moment is being slowly buried by creative, and a guy who despite being US Champion is fliundering because creative dont know how to book him, and think this goofy nerd persona is getting him over.

[BigJerichool222]

You could also say that Steve Austin GAINS 1 MILLION VIEWERS

[BHB]

Mar 10, 2011 7:32:35 GMT -5 Spankymac is sick of the swiss said:

When you book guys like afterthoughts, the fans and viewers will TREAT them like afterthoughts.

Exactly. Why should we get behind guys when WWE clearly have no idea whether they're behind them or not themselves? Pushes literally stop and start from one show to the next depending on how idiots like Kevin Dunn are feeling at that particular time.

They push guys that aren't ready (Sheamus, Swagger) to the title then wonder why no one buys it, they then take that to mean that these guys suck so they punish them for it. It literally makes no sense at all and makes everyone look like crap.

[Bishblast]

Mar 10, 2011 7:40:49 GMT -5 BigJerichool222 said:

You could also say that Steve Austin GAINS 1 MILLION VIEWERS

This is more fair.

[randomranter]

I don't consider it a knock on Bryan or Sheamus. That being said, they've both been booked horribly and treated like they're barely considered afterthoughts for the past several months. It should be no surprise that the fans stopped caring about either one of them.

That (again) being said, no matter who you put in that slot, ratings were going to drop by a million viewers. There is nobody on the roster (including the almighty Cena) who has the drawing power of Austin or the Rock. And that "should" be a wakeup call for the WWE -- they need to start seriously getting behind some of their current talent, because the fans aren't buying the current crop of talent or the WWE's yo-yo pushing.

Unfortunately, what will more likely happen is that WWE will increase their reliance on yesterday's stars to draw viewers instead of giving fans a reason to give a shit about today's stars. Vince will blame the current wrestlers -- "You all suck and can't draw a dime" -- despite the fact that the bookers are 100% of the reason that they're not getting over; they're being booked like crap and anyone who dares to get over on their own quickly has the rug pulled out from under them and is put into some kind of 'losing streak' storyline that the WWE is hellbent on regurgitating every so often. Bryan and Sheamus will likely be the ones punished for the rating drop even though there's nobody else on the roster who would have done a whole lot better.

Every week that goes by, it looks like Vince is saying "You want JBL? No? Trish? Austin? Rock? Whatever you want...here it is, but Please....just....Please! Keep watching!!!". It's very obvious that he's already breaking out the stars of yesteryear to prop up what is an otherwise weak Wrestlemania card, and after this it's possible that he could use the same begging and pleading tactics to prop up Raw too, rather than take the time to push new talent.

[Citizen Zero]

Mar 10, 2011 7:32:35 GMT -5 Spankymac is sick of the swiss said:

When you book guys like afterthoughts, the fans and viewers will TREAT them like afterthoughts.

Agreed. WWE isn't going to find sustained success via one-shot appearences from their past glories, it's going to be through building up the talent they have *now*.