The WWE was able to offset their recent week-to-week declines with a modest 4% increase for Monday’s episode of Raw on the USA Network. It was still their second-lowest viewership of 2019.
The three-hour show averaged 2,244,000 viewers with a reactionary program to the declining numbers. The major changes included the introduction of a new “Wild Card Rule” where four SmackDown talents can appear on Raw on any given week and vice versa with Raw talent appearing on SmackDown. Monday’s episode featured Roman Reigns, Kofi Kingston, Lars Sullivan, Elias, and the return of Daniel Bryan.
Instead of posting highlights of Raw to YouTube during the broadcast, they waited until after the show to begin adding them to their channel.
The show opened with 2.47 million viewers, it fell to 2.24 million in the second hour and finished at 2.02 million in the final hour. The main event saw Kofi Kingston defeat Daniel Bryan in a rematch from WrestleMania in Bryan’s first match since losing the title at MetLife Stadium.
The silver lining was a small increase despite heavier competition from the NBA. The doubleheader saw the Milwaukee Bucks vs. Boston Celtics game attract 3.72 million viewers. At 9:30 pm Eastern, the Golden State Warriors vs. Houston Rockets game began and did 6.88 million viewers on TNT.
If you compare this week’s episode of Raw to the same week in 2018, the show was down 16.5%.
