WWE Raw falls to one of its lowest figures, hurt by weak first hour

WWE Raw took another plunge this week posting one of its lowest audiences in modern history beginning with a weak opening hour.

Photo courtesy: WWE

WWE Raw took another plunge this week posting one of its lowest audiences in modern history beginning with a weak opening hour.

The show averaged 1,687,000 viewers that put it within a rounding error of the previous modern-era low of 1,686,000 viewers set on May 4th this year. This week’s show dropped 2.8% from last week’s viewership.

This week’s show was hurt badly by the first hour, which was the lowest first hour of Raw in the history of the program in its three-hour format going back to July 2012. It started with 1,697,000 viewers (for comparison’s sake, the May 4th show started with 1,807,000 viewers). So, that says there was a lack of interest in the show, to begin with rather than turning viewers off later that night.

In fact, the second hour of Raw increased by 3% with 1,752,000 viewers before falling 8% in the third hour to 1,612,000 viewers. The show built to a Champion vs. Champion match between Asuka and Bayley that was promoted throughout the weekend and was the only match announced for Raw until late in the day Monday.

Raw finished 4th, 5th, and 6th among cable programming on Monday night averaging 0.49 in the 18-49 demographic, which is up from 0.48 last week.

Among the key demographics, there were not any radical increases or decreases this week with the largest swing among females 18-49 which dropped 9% this week. Males 12-34 improved by 5.5% and males 18-49 increased by 5% this week.

From the first hour to the third, the largest drop was with adults 18-34 with a 21% drop followed by males 12-34 falling 19.5%, and females 12-34 down 18% in the third hour. Five of the key demos increased from hour one to hour two.

This follows Friday Night SmackDown averaging its lowest viewership ever on Fox with last week’s episode drawing 1,777,000 viewers and 0.4 in the main demo.

Here is a breakdown of Raw’s demos and comparing the first and third hours:

ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.49 (+2%)
Hour 1-3: -2%

FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.31 (-9%)
Hour 1-3: +3%

MALES 18-49
This week: 0.67 (+5%)
Hour 1-3: -6%

ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.31 (+3%)
Hour 1-3: -21%

FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.20 (-5%)
Hour 1-3: -18%

MALES 12-34
This week: 0.38 (+5.5%)
Hour 1-3: -19.5%

ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.62 (+3%)
Hour 1-3: +1.5%

ADULTS 50+
This week: 0.83 (-3.5%)
Hour 1-3: -6%

About John Pollock 5924 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.

COMMENTS

  1. Good News: Maybe people are boycotting WWE being so delusional and barreling through in the middle of an outbreak at THE PC in the Middle of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC!

    Bad News: The usual viewers were Probably out Having a PACKED July 4th BBQ and Party!

  2. Damn, I hate when I like a show and the ratings tank.

  3. Avatar for kliq kliq says:

    Is there anywhere we can see week to week comparisons for Raw?

  4. Avatar for kliq kliq says:

    Thanks for posting, but this ends April 20th.

  5. Raw 2020

    Credit PW Unlimited

    December 2, 2,208,000
    December 9, 2,150,000
    December 16, 2,053,000
    December 23, 1,835,000
    December 30, 2,439,000
    January 6, 2,390,000
    January 13, 2,030,000
    January 20, 2,380,000
    January 28, 2,402,000
    February 3, 2,168,000
    February 10, 2,337,000
    February 17, 2,439,000
    February 24, 2,210,000
    March 3, 2,256,000
    March 9, 2,162,000
    March 16, 2,335,000
    March 23, 2,006,000
    March 30, 1,913,000
    April 6, 2,099,000
    April 13, 1,913,000
    April 20, 1,842,000

    ==========================

    Credit John Pollock

    April 27 1,817,000
    May 04 1,686,000
    May 11 1,919,000
    May 18 1,757,000
    May 25 1,735,000
    June 01 1,728,000
    June 08 1,737,000
    June 15 1,939,000
    June 22 1,922,000
    June 29 1,735,000
    July 06 1,687,000

  6. Avatar for kliq kliq says:

    Thanks for posting!

  7. Avatar for RTH75 RTH75 says:

    I’m sure they’ll blame it on Heath Slater, and that will be the end of that

  8. Avatar for kliq kliq says:

    His kids alone should have given the show a bump.

  9. Avatar for Bdubz Bdubz says:

    I think not. More likely is they are giving up on the product because it is shit (and that is nothing to do with empty arenas). At what point are people going to acknowledge that wrestling is dying a slow death due to the people running it being incapable of providing a compelling product that anyone other than the die hards are prepared to give up hours of their life for?

  10. Avatar for kliq kliq says:

    I think you’re projecting your opinion as fact. You can call wrestling shit all you want, but its not “dying”.
    I wont argue that there aren’t aspects to WWE and AEW that are bad, but both promotions have a lot of good stuff.

    Would you call Cody vs Hager from Fyter Fest shit? How about AJ vs Bryan a few weeks ago? What about Io vs Charlotte vs Rhea from In Your House? Even with no fans which totally diminishes the product (despite what you say), they still are able to put on good matches.

    The biggest issue with wrestling right now is overexposure. I guarantee if WWE had 1 show a week and it was two hours, the ratings would be significantly higher. If you could eliminate the awful scripting, even more so.

    Wrestling is thriving right now. As much as you shit on the product, these companies are doing very well financially. I think WWE just had the best year in their company history. Sure the TV deal is the main reason for that, and yes there are other indicators that are bad, but between the TV deals, overseas deals, merch, online presence, etc etc. etc. they are definitely not “dying”. People need to move on from the traditional measures of what makes a wrestling company successful.

    If wrestling was “dying” AEW would not be in the position they are in right now selling out arena’s (pre pandemic) and getting extensions to their TV deals. As much as I may think the Khans are full of it at times, you can’t deny how well they have built their business.

  11. Avatar for Bdubz Bdubz says:

    This is the problem. The casual fans that have tuned out in droves don’t give a flying f@@k about “good matches” (and I’m going to assume you equate good matches with athletic matches as modern matches aren’t “good” because they either make no sense or nobody really cares who wins or loses).

    If AEW and WWE were presenting actual good matches (i.e. ones that make sense and involve wrestlers and stakes they are actually invested in) then viewership would not be in constant decline.

    This blinkered view is what is killing the business. And if you disagree then present an argument as to why ratings have been declining for decades and continue to do so.

  12. Avatar for kliq kliq says:

    Like I said, you sound like you’re projecting your feelings onto all fans.

    Did you even watch Bryan vs AJ? Or any of the matches I named?

    Overall ratings decline is easy. People don’t consume traditional television like they used to. Top shows on TV do nowhere near what top shows did 20 years ago. Doesn’t negate issues with the product, but everything has declined in terms of TV ratings.

    Why do you think WWE is getting paid 500million (I think that’s what it is) a year for Smackdown when it gets 2mil viewers a week while WCW was cancelled in 2000 with more viewers then that? Times change, its a Different landscape in 2020.

  13. Avatar for Bdubz Bdubz says:

    No I’m not. The numbers don’t lie.

    I’m still not hearing another explanation.

  14. Avatar for Bdubz Bdubz says:

    And ironically, you are projecting your feelings by ignoring facts.

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