The following editorial was written by Tyler Treese and does not reflect the views of WrestleZone as a whole. Feel free to chime in on WWE ratings in the comments below.
With WWE television ratings hitting all-time lows, it’s only natural for there to be a lot of discourse going on. Over the past week, I’ve seen fans screaming at each other over the importance of television ratings. Some will argue that they don’t matter at all (which is of course ludicrous considering their recent television deal with FOX is why their stock and financial situations took a sudden upturn this year), while others think that WWE are in deep trouble due to the drop (which is equally as ridiculous).
Of course, the truth is more in the middle. Television ratings are a rough way to measure interest in a product, and while demographics are ultimately most important when it comes to ad revenue, any company obviously wants more people tuning in their less. These low ratings aren’t reflecting a ton of people cutting the cord each week, but rather people who don’t care enough to watch WWE television in full. It’s a statement on the quality of the show, and that they’d rather get segments recapped on social media or on websites like WrestleZone rather than tune in themselves.
As former WWE writer Tom Casiello summed it up a few months ago:
First of all…you really want to get me started on this? I don’t know how many times I have to say this: NOBODY CARES ABOUT HOUSEHOLD RATINGS!!!! Demos drive how much to charge for ad time. That’s all anyone cares about. DEMOS.
— Tom Casiello (@tommiecas) October 2, 2018
However, even with the lowered overall ratings, WWE still provides five of the highest rated hours of television per week on a weekly basis. Throw in their strong numbers in key demographics, and you have a money making machine that keeps networks like USA and FOX more than happy to be involved with. Their TV numbers will never be as strong as it was in the late 90s and early 00s, but they still provide a valuable product.
Will WWE be going out of business any time soon? Of course not. Should they be concerned with fans becoming disinterested? Yes, especially if they can’t get their attention when WrestleMania season comes around. You can acknowledge a problem without overreacting, and it’s clear from Seth Rollins’ recent promo that WWE does realize the state of the show. As long as they work to actively fix that, and make sure people care about the product, then they will be fine long-term.
But, it’s important to reiterate that this is a long-term issue not a short-term one. With less people watching the product, it means that there are less possibilities to create lifelong fans, and convince people to spend extra money on everything from merchandise to WWE Network subscriptions. More is always better in this situation, and they certainly can’t be happy about seeing these numbers drop, even if it isn’t the end of the world at the moment.
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