Why is Raw on til 11 pm still?

[amyshpyrate]

WWE is trying to target a pg audience, so why are they still on till 11 pm on monday nites? Most kids are not up that late. Do you think it would benefit them any to be on earlier in the evening? Maybe from 8-10 instead?

 

[Kidd]

Good point.

Back during the Attitude Era, I could understand the late night showing but now?

I agree. If they're targeting kids anyway, they may as well come on when kids are up to watch.

 

[enterkey]

While it may make more sense to change the time to a Smackdownish start time the kids audience is not all that vast in comparison to the adult audience according to the random stats that continually get thrown around by the announcers every week. A change like this would probably hurt the ratings more than help them for a while because after having your show start and end at a consistent time for more than a decade the loyal fans will easily get confused and continually tune in at the original time only to see that the show is half over and that they missed the majority of the story building up the show thus leaving them less fulfilled and fairly pissed off. Humans are habitual creatures and even if they were to advertise this months in advance the majority of the people would still miss out simply due to the habits that they have formed for years upon years of watching Raw. I for one would most likely be one of them, with the time zone the way it is where I live I generally have time to eat dinner and barely make it back in time to watch Raw and if they were to change I would miss roughly half of every episode of Raw. You would also need to take into account that the parents that don't allow their kids to stay up late enough to watch Raw could also be the kinds of parents that wouldn't want their kids watching wrestling in the first place due to some sort of ill informed delusions. All in all it would be a big risk for such a trivial reward.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The timing has more to do with live deals elsewhere... the UK for example has RAW live, but that timing, while sucky for us as we have to stay up till 2am or tape it means Sky TV don't have any competition from other channels at that time...

 

[Kidd]

that is a good point, and also makes me wonder. I live on the east coast. Is raw still 9-11pm on the west coast?

When I lived in CA 9 or 10 years ago, it came on from 9-11. We jus had to watch a taping so it wasn't live. This never bothered me especially during football season. MNF would come on around six and be off in time for RAW.

 

[WCWMondayNitroOnYT]

that is a good point, and also makes me wonder. I live on the east coast. Is raw still 9-11pm on the west coast?

I live in Cali and we used to have to wait until 9 our time but now, with the HD channels, we get everything three hours early so when its 9 on the east coast, its 6 over here and thats when it airs. Smackdown airs at 5pm here now! Barely have to wait for wrestling at all! It's great!

 

[kazfan401]

Tbh of never thought of that, Over here in the UK it used to be 10 - 12 PM but I'm not sure about now because I just keep track of WWE and I don't watch it any more, I don't think many kids stay up to that time the latest any kid I know that watches WWE stayed up to was my 6 year old cousin who stayed up to 12 PM or 1 AM on New Years Night.

 

[RedBeardHair]

i think it would help in the US during football season think of like when wcw was 3 hours football starts at 9 so they could have a strong live 8 oclock hour. then if its good they stay and dvr football or visvera.

 

[jhauth11]

im sure it be a USA network thing. I think it would also have something to do with other shows on the network so they cant bump it up and hour. so im sure it be something out of Vinces power otherwise he would have bumped it up so he could brag about how its on at a child friendly hour and all of that PG crap

 

[VinnieSunshine]

Its all attributed to ratings. RAW may slip in ratings from time to time, but it has always remained steady no matter what channel its on. Its the same principle for Monday Night Football. It may have changed from Mondays on ABC to ESPN...its owned by the same company, but the time never changed (ok so it airs 1/2 hour early).

Many other shows like sitcoms and and dramas that have changed time slots or days that its aired, have dropped in ratings and ultimately get canned by the network due to the low ratings.

 

[D-Man]

I believe they're going by the mentality of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Even though they're targeting a PG audience, they don't want to lose their loyal fanbase who have been watching Raw in the same timeslot for over 17 years. If I'm not mistaken, the show has always been aired from 9pm-11pm in the United States. Why would they deviate from that and risk losing a part of their fanbase?

You have a good point. However, with the invention of TiVo and DVR's, anyone can watch Raw... even if it's on later than the PG audience would prefer.

 

[Mustang Sally]

It's an interesting question, isn't it? Trying to answer it still leads me to the realm of whether the whole PG thing has to do with Linda McMahon's Senate run. It seems insane to think the McMahon's would change the character of their entire business empire just to indulge Linda's political aspirations......but they might be doing it, anyway.

Face it, PG or not, wrestling is a form of entertainment that promotes faux-violence. It should be shown at a later hour. On the other hand, the notion of marketing to kids, yet airing the show after they've gone to bed, seems too much a contradiction to be real.

During football season, however, it might make sense to put RAW on at 8PM, before the Monday Night stuff starts. WWE probably costs themselves some audience by starting up 1/2 hour later. I suspect a lot of folks put on the football game and simply stay with it. If RAW aired at 8PM, the opposite might be true.

Good topic.

 

[jchristopher512]

My only issue is from a business standpoint. One of the graphics during Raw stated that 78% of the WWE audience is over the age of 18. This tells me that WWE is marketing the PG program rating to 22% of their audience. If you think about it this has everything to do with Linda McMahons campaign. The PG era began at the same time that her campaign began. Why else would WWE sacrafice ratings and market to only 1/5 of their audience? I expect to see the PG era to fade once election season is over. Also note, WWE and USA have scheduled 3 "Three hour RAW Specials" within 6 weeks of the end of the election.

 

[RawIsRamsey]

Last night, WWE admitted that 78% of their audience is over the age of 18, which (A) means their marketing towards children is pointless as they aren't a significant enough portion of the audience, and (B) means no reason for a later start time.

Also, 8-9 is considered the "family hour" for television and, for those of us old IWCers who have been around since the WWF vs. WCW message boards on AOL, Vince doesn't want his faux-violence being criticized by the PTC again or any other organization that could tie kids to violence through the WWE. It's happened before. It's happening now, actually, with the senate debacle.

 

[oldschool123]

While it may make more sense to change the time to a Smackdownish start time the kids audience is not all that vast in comparison to the adult audience according to the random stats that continually get thrown around by the announcers every week. A change like this would probably hurt the ratings more than help them for a while because after having your show start and end at a consistent time for more than a decade the loyal fans will easily get confused and continually tune in at the original time only to see that the show is half over and that they missed the majority of the story building up the show thus leaving them less fulfilled and fairly pissed off. Humans are habitual creatures and even if they were to advertise this months in advance the majority of the people would still miss out simply due to the habits that they have formed for years upon years of watching Raw. I for one would most likely be one of them, with the time zone the way it is where I live I generally have time to eat dinner and barely make it back in time to watch Raw and if they were to change I would miss roughly half of every episode of Raw. You would also need to take into account that the parents that don't allow their kids to stay up late enough to watch Raw could also be the kinds of parents that wouldn't want their kids watching wrestling in the first place due to some sort of ill informed delusions. All in all it would be a big risk for such a trivial reward.

This is a big part of it and I'm sure another part of it is that DVR is very common now so they can just record and the kids can watch it the next day if it is on too late for them to watch live.

There is also something to be said for the west coast, I don't know if it is shown live on the west coast but if it is it would start at like 4 if they moved it up an hour.

 

[themiz937]

In australia they have Raw,NXT and Smackdown are on at 3:30 in west australia and 5:30 in sydney and that. but in sydney and goldcoast they have daylight savings but they dont have them here wich means Raw and Smackdow and NXT all start at 2:30 wich means kids who go to shcool would miss the first half hour if not the first hour doesnt make sense youd think thed just move up the times especialy since the pg rating.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

A big misconception is that the WWE targets "kids" and while there is some truth to it, the WWE targets families in general. Why is Raw still on at the hour of 11 pm? Because most of the Raw audience consists of adults quite frankly.

I know that there are lots that are hung up on the PG rating, which equates "kid stuff" but, honestly, it's a dead horse that been beaten to death and is ready for the glue factory. No matter if you don't want to believe it or not, it's all in the ratings when they come out. Most of the Raw audience is made up of adult men, so they don't have 8 or 9 pm bedtimes or any of that nonsense.

 

[shattered dreams]

You can pretend the stats "show" they are not marketing the product at a younger audience but that is not necessarily true. It could just as easily be what many of us have said, there are people that will watch no matter what out of habit or tradition or whatever you want to call it. Barney could come down and have a match next week and these adults would tune in same time the following week. I think the OP brings up a relevant point that just shows some of the growing pains WWE is experiencing. In this case the disconnect between the traditional audience and many of the things they are doing now. It is a tricky balancing act to say the least. If they ever get the shift in audience they are looking for then it wouldn't surprise me if they moved earlier to try and capitalize on it. Since that has not happened yet they have to stick with the hope the blind sheep don't eat enough carrots approach. The interesting part is the denial of the PG era effect actually allows them to keep it going. If more people in the traditional audience made it clear that some of these things did not work for them then I bet WWE would have to cave in and abandon more and more of these elements.

 

[Funkydr79]

I think they rely on AM Raw for their marketing to kids. or at least they should. I remember as a kid bouncing from Superstars to Wrestling Challenge on Saturday mornings to get my wrestling fix. That was wrestling that was marketed to the kids while Prime Time Wrestling (the precursor to Raw) was slightly more adult.

 

[3/4 Facelock]

Let's pretend that the United States has timezones. I think the rest of the world has them too. But who knows mysteries like this?

While it comes on from 9-11 for you, it comes on 8-10 for me, and quite possibly 7-9 for those on the east coast.

It's weird right? I mean, why can't they show it all at the same time through out all the timezones? Like, put it on at 8 o'clock everywhere?

Oh, because it's live?
Well...that's just doesn't make any sense.

 

[amyshpyrate]

Let's pretend that the United States has timezones. I think the rest of the world has them too. But who knows mysteries like this?

While it comes on from 9-11 for you, it comes on 8-10 for me, and quite possibly 7-9 for those on the east coast.

It's weird right? I mean, why can't they show it all at the same time through out all the timezones? Like, put it on at 8 o'clock everywhere?

Oh, because it's live?
Well...that's just doesn't make any sense.

Because they don't videotape live things and show it later to other audiences? That's weird, i mean cause It's still considered live.... Even "live events" are put on a delay in cause things need censored, so it's technically not live anywhere. I even asked the question earlier and those that are on the west coast.... the left side of the US, which is the west, not the EAST like you eliquitely put it say it runs from 9-11. Because wwe RECORDS it and show it at its designated timeslot... If ya could read, you woulda saw that, as for you watching it from 8-10, I don't know why its on then for ya. The one guy says he watches it earlier because he gets channels that are normally east coast, but I dunno in your case. anyways it was just a thought. Thanks for not being a dick.... oh well i guess thanks for nothing

 

[Dizzysosinister]

anybody in the central timezone (in the u.s) watches raw from 8-10 while the east coast aka pacific timezone watches 9-11. while its not only raw smackdown runs from 7-9 in central time but come to think about it its like that for every thing that comes on tv lol monday night raw 9p/8c lol

 

[oldschool123]

anybody in the central timezone (in the u.s) watches raw from 8-10 while the east coast aka pacific timezone watches 9-11. while its not only raw smackdown runs from 7-9 in central time but come to think about it its like that for every thing that comes on tv lol monday night raw 9p/8c lol

a.)Please tell me that is a joke. The East coast is in the Eastern time zone while the West coast is in the Pacific time zone because it is close to the Pacific Ocean.

b.) It isn't like that for everything because while I am in the Central time zone I get the regular TBS and a TBS that shows everything a couple hours later that is for the Western part of the US. It does however show the MLB playoffs live. I don't know if USA network has a similar west coast alternate channel or not or if it would show RAW live anyway but it is not like that for everything.

 

[Monkey_Mania]

Why on earth would you change a timeslot for a show that has been pulling consistent ratings for the better of ten plus years? It would be a bad decision for WWE to change it's time slot, and plus even though Raw is rated PG it's always been the more adult programmed show.

Just out of habit, WWE doesn't need to change their timeslot.

 

[Icedawg316]

the only change I'd consider is moving Smackdown back to Thursdays. The time is good, I think once Tough Enough comes back on an 8-10 Raw would be good then have TE from 10-11 as I don't see many tuning in for the show at 11 once Raw ends, but that probably won't happen anyway