RAW Ratings Back Down, Andre The Giant Film in Development

[cero2k]

Source: f4wonline.com

-- The "New Era" ended up not being a positive factor in the ratings, as last night's Raw did 3.23 million viewers, down six percent from last week. It was the second lowest for a show outside of football season since 1997.

The combination of coming the day after a PPV and the first Stephanie & Shane McMahon show last week did 3.43 million viewers. The modern era low for a show outside of football season or a major holiday was 3.12 million viewers set two weeks ago.

Dancing With the Stars, featuring UFC's Paige VanZant, remained the most-watched show on television with 11.33 million viewers.

Raw was third on cable, trailing two NBA playoff games on TNT. The first, which went head-to-head with Raw, did 4.01 milliion viewers. The late night game, which started just before Raw ended, did 6.16 million viewers.

In this case, the culprit is the audience at the start was lower than usual. The second hour was the high point, although really the first two hours were identical. There was a third hour drop, but not as bad as some and the real story of the low number wasn't people tuning out, but they didn't tune in at usual levels to begin with.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.35 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.36 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.01 million viewers

-- Variety is reporting that Stone Village Productions and Lion Forge Comics are developing an Andre The Giant film. The film will be based on the 2015 Graphic novel biography, Andre The Giant: Closer to Heaven. The biography covers his early farm life in France and his rise to celebrity status through pro wrestling. Andre’s daughter, Robin Christensen-Roussimoff will be involved with the production as a consultant.

Andre "The Giant" Roussimoff is widely regarded as one of the biggest stars in the wrestling business and eventually became a household name. He was successful in crossing over into Hollywood and had a major role in the 1987 Rob Reiner film, The Princess Bride. In the late 80’s, Andre had a memorable feud with Hulk Hogan and they headlined Wrestlemania III in front of one of the largest wrestling audiences of all time. Andre died on January 27, 1993 after his health had worsened due to issues related to his gigantism. Andre is the first person inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, which was created shortly after his death in 1993. He was the solo inductee that year.