Reaction Zone - Raw to go live on Christmas night vs. the NBA. What next?

Has it occurred to the suits at NBC-Universal-Comcast, the parent of USA Network, that WWE Monday Night Raw struggles in the ratings against football during the final 1/3 of the year?

If those suits had any rational thought among them, they wouldn't have made the announcement that Raw would be broadcast live on Christmas night for the first time in the series' 25 year history (the 25th anniversary is actually in January 2018)---opposite the tail end of an NBA marathon on ESPN. I can just picture the ratings numbers come December 27. Raw falls under 2.0, maybe close to Impact's worst numbers.

While it was a tradition in the territory era for live events on Christmas night (i.e. Atlanta, Dallas), WWE CEO/Chairman Vince McMahon has preferred to give his talent a few days off around the holidays so they can spend some quality time with their families, and Raw has often been pre-taped as much as a week before Christmas to faciliate that holiday vacation.

Unfortunately, while McMahon is returning to Smackdown on September 12 in another case of trying to jack up the ratings when no one else can, at least in his mind, he's also beholden to NBC-U-C suits who want to take a piece of the NBA's pie, believing that the young adults who make up a good chunk of WWE's audience would rather watch Raw than fall asleep from fatigue, since ESPN/ABC's NBA marathon starts at lunch time (12 noon in the East), and ends before Raw does, knowing how some of these games slow to a crawl around the 4th quarter. Do they really think those fans would prefer, say, the Miz over James Harden and the Houston Rockets? Braun Strowman over Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder? Seriously?

On the plus side, storylines can be put aside for one night, and they can do something special to lure viewers in that otherwise would be zoned in on the NBA. Then again, "Tribute to the Troops" will be taped earlier in the month, and will have already aired on USA and NBC before Christmas, unless they want to make "Tribute" the theme to a live Christmas episode of Raw. That would be the best way to work it.

We'll see how it plays out in 3 1/2 months.


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