Photo courtesy: WWE
For the second consecutive week, WWE Raw was able to top 1.9 million viewers for a show advertised as “Championship Monday” along with the return of Rey Mysterio, and an update from Edge.
Monday’s three-hour show averaged 1,922,000 viewers, which is on par with last week’s average of 1,939,000. Both weeks finished with 0.53 in the key 18-49 demographic. The three hours of Raw this week finished fourth, sixth, and seventh among cable programming for the evening.
Raw opened with 2,035,000 viewers in the first hour, which is the first time Raw has cracked two million viewers for any hour of the program since the night after WrestleMania on April 6th.
In the second hour, it fell 4% to 1,950,000 viewers and declined another 8.5% in the third hour with an average of 1,782,000 viewers. The show built to the closing angle involving Rey Mysterio’s return alongside son Dominick and a brawl involving Aleister Black and Humberto Carrillo against Seth Rollins, Murphy, and Austin Theory.
The consecutive weeks of audience improvement coincide with the recent creative shake-up where the company announced Bruce Prichard would be overseeing both Raw and SmackDown, while Paul Heyman was being removed from his position on Raw and would retain his on-air role. While the shows are always going to be Vince McMahon produced shows, a change in Raw’s presentation has been evident in the past two episodes.
The key demographics were interesting when it came to the 12-34 audience. The show was a hit with males as they were up 30% from last week, although it declined 11% by the third hour. With females in the same age group, they were down 32% from last week, although that audience stayed consistent for all three hours with no decline in the third hour, which is a rarity for any demographic on Raw.
Every other demo fell in the third hour compared to hour one with the biggest drop among males 18-49 declining by 17% in the last hour.
Here is a breakdown of the demos and comparison between the first and third hours:
ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.53 (Even)
Hour 1-3: -15.5%
FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.37 (-7.5%)
Hour 1-3: -13%
MALES 18-49
This week: 0.70 (+6%)
Hour 1-3: -17%
ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.32 (+10%)
Hour 1-3: -9%
FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.19 (-32%)
Hour 1-3: Even
MALES 12-34
This week: 0.43 (+30%)
Hour 1-3: -11%
ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.65 (Even)
Hour 1-3: -14%
ADULTS 50+
This week: 0.94 (-1%)
Hour 1-3: -10%
