Photo courtesy: WWE
WWE Raw saw the show’s audience decline a week removed from the Royal Rumble with a decline of 10% in total viewership along with double-digit decreases among most of the key demos.
The three-hour episode averaged 2,168,000 viewers on the USA Network, down 10% from last week’s figure following the Royal Rumble. While there wasn’t sports competition, cable news coverage of the results from the Iowa caucuses did big numbers.
This was Raw’s second-lowest mark of 2020 with their lowest number of January 13th going against the LSU vs. Clemson football game that did over 25 million viewers.
Raw opened with 2,318,000 viewers featuring Randy Orton in the opening segment. Orton’s response to Edge was promoted throughout the commercial spots. The show dropped 7% in the second hour to 2,164,000 viewers and fell another 7% in the final hour. The show was capped off with a triple threat match with Ricochet defeating Bobby Lashley and Seth Rollins to earn a WWE title shot against Brock Lesnar, who showed up unannounced in the final minute of the show to attack Ricochet.
Raw was the top cable program in the 18-49 demographic registering a 0.67 over the three hours but down 12% from the prior week. Outside of women 12-34 and adults over 50, all the key demos were down double digits led by adults 25-54 dropping 16.5%, men 12-34 down 15% and males 18-34 falling 13.5%.
Females 12-34 were only down 3% from last week and adults over 50 fell 6%.
Year-to-year the show was down 13% from this week in 2019.
Here is the breakdown of the key demos with comparisons to last week and changes from the first hour to the third:
ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.67
Last week: 0.76 (-12%)
Hour 1-3: -12.5%
FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.44
Last week: 0.49 (-10%)
Hour 1-3: -20%
MALES 18-49
This week: 0.90
Last week: 1.04 (-13.5%)
Hour 1-3: -8%
ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.48
Last week: 0.54 (-11%)
Hour 1-3: -10% – this demo was up slightly in the third hour compared to the second
FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.28
Last week: 0.29 (-3%)
Hour 1-3: -13% – the third hour was unchanged from the second
MALES 12-34
This week: 0.56
Last week: 0.66 (-15%)
Hour 1-3: -5% – the third hour curbed the trend and was up from a 0.52 to a 0.56 in the third hour
ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.76
Last week: 0.91 (-16.5%)
Hour 1-3: -12%
ADULTS 50+
This week: 1.02
Last week: 1.09 (-6%)
Hour 1-3: -8.5%
