Photo courtesy: WWE
WWE Raw was able to stop its viewership loss with its best number in over a month this week. The show featured the announcement that Becky Lynch was pregnant and saw Edge and Randy Orton appear for the first time since WrestleMania.
The three-hour show averaged 1,919,000 viewers, their highest number since April 6th and up 14% from last week.
There was additional evidence that the audience enjoyed the show given the minimal level of decline throughout the three hours. The show opened with 1,993,000 viewers with Lynch’s announcement kicking off the show and presenting the Raw women’s title to Asuka.
The drop the second hour was less than 2% with 1,961,000 and then dropped 8% in the final hour, which ended with Edge and Randy Orton setting up a rematch for the Backlash event in June.
In the 18-49 demographic, Raw did a 0.57, which was up 24% from last week and ranked Raw 1st, 2nd, and 4th among cable programming on Monday. The demo fell 10% from the first to the third hour.
There were no declines among the key demos from last week. The big gains were among adults 18-49 up 37%, followed by adults 18-34 and males 12-34 increasing 33% each.
The only group that didn’t grow this week was females 18-49 which was flat with last week’s number.
From the first to the third hour, the male 12-34 audience grew 6%, which is a rare example of a demo’s growth throughout the show. The declines were largest among females 18-49 which dropped 18% by the third hour and adults 50+ falling 10.5%.
Overall, this represented a stoppage in the audience’s decline, which has fallen at an alarming rate over the past month. The company has implemented a new ‘Brand-to-Brand Invitation’ concept allowing Raw and SmackDown talent to crossover.
Here is a breakdown of the key demos and comparisons to last week and how they fluctuated from the first to third hours on Monday:
ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.57 (+24%)
Last week: 0.46
Hour 1-3: -10%
FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.35 (Even)
Last week: 0.35
Hour 1-3: -18%
MALES 18-49
This week: 0.79 (+37%)
Last week: 0.57
Hour 1-3: -5%
ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.28 (+33%)
Last week: 0.21
Hour 1-3: -10%
FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.21 (+23.5%)
Last week: 0.21
Hour 1-3: -17%
MALES 12-34
This week: 0.36 (+33%)
Last week: 0.27
Hour 1-3: +6%
ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.68 (+17%)
Last week: 0.58
Hour 1-3: -8%
ADULTS 50+
This week: 0.91 (+8%)
Last week: 0.84
Hour 1-3: -10.5%
