Terry's Peeps wrote:
WWE News: Stephanie defends Raw to three hours, is she returning to TV?, talks surprises at Raw #1,000 & Rock's return
May 21, 2012 - 5:04:34 PM
By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor
WWE executive Stephanie McMahon talked to IGN.com's Eric Goldman about Raw changing to three hours starting July 23. The following are highlights.
-- As part of the "interactive elements" added to Raw, Stephanie said the audience will vote on "different things every week" to affect the show.
-- Stephanie said the 1,000th Raw (actual #999) starting the three-hour Raws will feature old stars returning to mix with new stars on the roster. Asked if she will be returning to TV, Stephanie said, "Who knows? Maybe you’ve got to tune into the 1000th Raw on July 23!”
Asked when The Rock will return and/or have a return match, Stephanie said, "Hmm, I think I’m gonna have to let that one unfold!”
-- Stephanie gave the marketing department sales pitch for why Raw is moving to three hours: “It’s going to be the first-ever regularly scheduled three-hour program on television and I think we’ve got a pretty good handle on it thus far! You know, we do a three-hour show called a Pay-Per-View almost every month and Monday Night Raw, we’ve done three hours before, so we feel great about it."
Link: Full story at IGN.com .
Caldwell's Analysis: There are some really, really good reasons why executives in the TV industry have not scheduled three-hour, non-sporting event shows. (a) You lose the audience asking them to sit through a three-hour drama/comedy/variety show once-a-week. (b) It would burn out the audience very quickly by throwing everything at viewers and leaving them with nothing to anticipate.
As for Stephanie's comments on WWE already having practice with PPVs and three-hour specials, there's a reason why they're special events and not weekly-occurring events. Over the Limit Sunday night showed why WWE should cut back on PPV events - it didn't feel like a PPV-worthy special event and watered down the entire PPV concept - in order to re-establish the specialness of the events. With Raw, WWE is pushing forward with too much supply when the demand simply is not there for a three-hour Raw. Soon enough, having a three-hour Raw every week will water down the flagship show and WWE will eventually lose viewers asking them to sit through a three-hour show every Monday night when they were perfectly content watching a two-hour show
It's going to fail and fail big time. It's a really really bad idea. I like when Raw is a 3 hour show for bigger events, but I just really can't see it every week.
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Hank Scorpio wrote:
What the hell, I would. Post op is OK right? Right?!?!?!