WWE RAW mysteriously disappeared from Netflix’s weekly rankings after the August 31 episode, and there may be a very specific reason why.
The show failed to crack Netflix’s top 10 English-language television programs for the week, with the No. 10 show pulling 1.8 million views. Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer addressed the strange situation and suggested Netflix may have simply chosen not to include RAW in the rankings. Meltzer believes that is the more likely explanation, but there’s another wrinkle tied directly to the unusual way the August 31 episode aired.
RAW was taped and featured very little commercial time, cutting the total episode length down to just 1 hour and 42 minutes. Meltzer argued that the shorter runtime may have made it impossible to boost the calculated view total in the same way a longer version of the show could.
“However, because of the shorter show, you can’t artificially ‘cheat’ the percentages as they do every week. In other words, if the show doesn’t really do 2.1 million views, you can’t pretend nobody watches live or same day (before they put up the shorter show) and divide time viewing by the shorter time frame and thus artificially, like last week, claim 2.5 million views when the reality was closer to 2.1 million.”
RAW was also down 18% in its first-day numbers, which led Meltzer to estimate the episode could have actually landed closer to 1.73 million views.
“And the show was down 18% on first day numbers, so for a real estimate it would appear to be in the range of 1.73 million views and well out of the top ten.”
That could explain why RAW missed Netflix’s worldwide top 10, but Meltzer doesn’t think it explains the entire situation. RAW also vanished from the rankings in individual countries where it normally performs well, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. It was also absent in markets such as India, Trinidad & Tobago and El Salvador. That is why Meltzer believes Netflix simply withholding the show from the rankings may be the stronger possibility.
“This, and I believe it is more likely, for some reason Netflix decided to simply hide how the show did.”
There’s precedent for major programming not appearing in Netflix’s public top 10. Meltzer pointed to other sports broadcasts that were absent from the rankings despite later audience figures suggesting they should have been included. The situation became even stranger because SmackDown also disappeared from several weekly country rankings where WWE programming normally lands. Meltzer boiled the mystery down to three possibilities: RAW completely collapsed around the world, Netflix removed the show from its rankings, or there was some kind of clerical mistake.
“Essentially the show bombed worldwide or it was simply pulled by decision by Netflix from the rankings or it was a clerical error, which has happened for first day ratings.”
He also questioned how RAW could suddenly fall out of the top 10 in virtually every market where it normally performs well at the exact same time.
“But that would not explain it not being in the top ten in many countries where it always is unless all those top tens are routinely using gimmicked numbers for the show or something unheard of happened and worldwide in every country that usually does well, in every one of them, it didn’t.”
So the possible reason behind RAW’s disappearance comes down to the way Netflix calculated the shorter episode — or Netflix deciding not to show the number at all. Either RAW had an absolutely brutal week everywhere at once, or the public Netflix rankings aren’t giving fans the full picture. For now, the shorter runtime and RAW disappearing across multiple countries at the same time are the biggest clues behind the mystery.
What do you think is the real reason WWE RAW disappeared from Netflix’s rankings? Do you think the shorter episode exposed a lower number, or did Netflix simply leave the show off the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.
