WWE is putting more focus into the third hour of Raw and USA Network is behind them because tonight’s third hour will have limited commercial interruption.
Andrew Zarian first reported the news on Twitter about the limited commercials for tonight’s show.
Last hour of Raw tonight will have limited commercials.
— Andrew Zarian (@AndrewZarian) August 22, 2022
Last week, Corey Graves said the following about the third hour:
“I don’t think I’m giving away any trade secrets that I think around the 10 o’clock hour, you’ll notice it’s happened for the past several weeks, not just this past week, going all the way back to the countdown to Cody was coming on at about the 10 o’clock hour because that’s the meat of our viewership. That is when our viewership is the strongest. That is when people really look for the biggest bang possible. So we’ve been trying to deliver that rather than trying to string them along for that extra hour, for that third hour, to where the third hour, you’ll still see tons of it and Monday night was no exception. We ended with Theory and Ziggler with a three seg pay-per-view match-up. So you’re still gonna get that additional main event, but as far as attracting the largest amount of eyes possible, 10 o’clock right now seems to really be the sweet spot.”
Graves continued, “So you’re gonna see, I think, and to the best of my knowledge, some more high profile things going down in that 9:50 to 10:10 window going forward because that’s when the most eyes are on the product. Of course, you want to make sure that everybody hangs around. You want to give them something to say ‘Well, I’m not tuning out now’, but there’s a reason for all that and how it’s going down.”
WWE is advertising the following for tonight’s Raw:
– Edge vs. Damian Priest
– Alea Bliss and Asuka vs. Dakota Kai and IYO SKY in the semifinals of the Women’s Tag Team Title Tournament
– Trish Status returns to WWE Raw
