Why Were Old Raws in Two Parts?

[sonofblaine]

Watching some classic Raw, I was reminded about how the second hour had another opening, music, crowd shots, a new color commentator, and speil from Ross about "Welcome to RAW!!". I always wondered why they did this? Did making the hour after 10pm it's own show let them give it a higher rating so they could get away with more? That's all I could think of.

[Cieto]

In simple terms, from what a can remember the second part of the show was after a certain watershed. I think they referred to it as "the war zone" as it was less PG.

[Deleted]

I honestly never thought of Raw and The War Zone being two seperate shows.
I just figured it was two parts of one larger show, then again, the thought never occurred to me at the time as I was around 14-16 while watching.

[Nic Nemeth]

I remember it was because they had different ratings so that's why the more extreme stuff happened after 10.

[Metalheadbanger Man]

I've been watching a few RAWs from '98, in the second hour they would change the commentary team, the promos were more risque and it had a different feel really.

[Deleted]

Part of it was so they could put the more edgy stuff in he second hour. Also I think part of it was so they could technically have 2 top rated cable shows, instead of 1.

[Hit Girl]

They should have a War Zone now. May as well use one of those hours for something decent.

[lovingway]

Jan 26, 2013 7:45:45 GMT -5 brentreznor said:

Part of it was so they could put the more edgy stuff in he second hour. Also I think part of it was so they could technically have 2 top rated cable shows, instead of 1.

That and they can also charge more for advertising depending on which hour had better ratings

[Burst]

I did hear that it was just for ratings purposes, like how you can see the copyright at the end of every hour. I haven't been overtly paying attention to it since the 3-hour change, but I'm going to guess they don't label the last hour "Raw Zone" anymore.

[Deleted]

Jan 26, 2013 7:45:45 GMT -5 brentreznor said:

Part of it was so they could put the more edgy stuff in he second hour. Also I think part of it was so they could technically have 2 top rated cable shows, instead of 1.

Honestly, it did seem like two different shows.

[agent817]

I had always known that it was the same show. Even I wondered why they acted as it was two separate shows.

I did like how they changed the name card layouts for "both shows." Raw had a target crosshair while War Zone had barbed wire.

[Sam Punk]

It's so they could have two top ten shows ratings-wise instead of just one.

[zeez]

Jan 26, 2013 10:30:11 GMT -5 Burst said:

I did hear that it was just for ratings purposes, like how you can see the copyright at the end of every hour. I haven't been overtly paying attention to it since the 3-hour change, but I'm going to guess they don't label the last hour "Raw Zone" anymore.

I think it's all one show now since they don't air copyright info before the next hour starts anymore.

[Deleted]

I'd like them to do more of this, split it up even more so there's 20 or so programs in 2 hours

Then we can get did you know segments like "YOU ARE WATCHING THE MOST POPULAR SHOW STARTING AT 9:47 PM IN THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING"

[Deleted]

Jan 26, 2013 7:45:45 GMT -5 brentreznor said:

Also I think part of it was so they could technically have 2 top rated cable shows, instead of 1.

I was always under the impression that it was 100% this. 2 different shows = more ratings, or some such Neilsen nonsense.

[wildojinx]

They also used to give it a different theme song. RAW had Thorn in your eye while War Zone had We're All Together Now. They pretty much stopped that practice in 1998 though.