WWE Raw ratings down for Labor Day episode

Monday night’s Labor Day edition of Raw on the USA Network did just 2.916 million viewers, down 12 percent from the previous week. In addition to the holiday, Monday marked the first week of the season against big competition from football.

While ESPN’s juggernaut staple Monday Night Football doesn’t return until next week, Monday’s NCAA game between Georgia Tech and Tennessee averaged 5.134 million viewers to take the top spot on cable.

Raw did finish second for the night in both total viewership and in the 18-49 demo, with a 1.04 rating as compared to 1.67 for the football game.

The show was down five percent year-over-year from Labor Day in 2016, which did 3.063 million viewers.

This was the first time since July 3rd that Raw failed to top three million viewers. Hour one opened with 3.069 million viewers and both hours fell from there, which buckles the recent trend of hour two usually being the highest rated.

Raw fell to 2.975 million viewers for the second hour and hour three, with an 18-minute overrun, fell all the way to 2.75 million. The 10.4 percent drop from the first to third hour was bigger than usual.