Going against the Alabama vs. Ohio State College Football national championship game, WWE Raw took a hit while still topping 1.8 million viewers.
Monday’s show was re-arranged after news broke that Drew McIntyre had tested positive for COVID-19 and his match with Randy Orton was off. In his place, Triple H appeared and led to a showdown with Orton in the closing segment. The tease throughout the three hours still saw a 19 percent drop in viewership in the third hour.
Overall, RAW averaged 1,819,000 viewers and a 0.55 in the 18-49 demographic. Compared with Legends Night the week prior, they fell 14.5 percent in viewers and 19 percent in the demographic. Both weeks are not indicative of where RAW will land as last week was abnormally high due to the return of the legends, and this week is low due to the football competition. Next week’s episode will give us a better sense of where RAW’s audience will settle.
The first hour of the show topped two million viewers with 2,024,000 and a 0.62 in the demo and I’d attribute the strong start to curiosity regarding McIntyre, who was advertised to provide an update on the program.
It dropped in hour two to 1,802,000 viewers (0.53), and hour three fell to 1,632,000 (0.51).
Women 18-49 were the largest decline from the prior week dropping by 24.5 percent and then throughout the show, fell 28 percent. Men 18-49 declined by 17 percent this week and 13.5 percent throughout the show.
While males 12-34 were down by 21 percent this week, they stayed even with a small drop in the second hour and regained that audience in the third hour, which is a rare occurrence for a demo.
In Canada, it was a bit of a different story as RAW finished #3 among sports programming behind the Alabama vs. Ohio State game, and a Toronto Raptors vs. Portland Trail Blazers game. Despite the heavy competition, RAW averaged 302,500 viewers and 147,300 in the 25-54 demographic, which is a strong performance for RAW.
Here is a breakdown of the demographics:
ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.55 (-19 percent)
Hour 1-3: -18 percent
FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.37 (-24.5 percent)
Hour 1-3: -28 percent
MALES 18-49
This week: 0.73 (-17 percent)
Hour 1-3: -13.5 percent
ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.35 (-14.5 percent)
Hour 1-3: -10.5 percent
FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.25 (-11 percent)
Hour 1-3: -39 percent
MALES 12-34
This week: 0.41 (-21 percent)
Hour 1-3: Even
ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.67 (-15 percent)
Hour 1-3: -21 percent
ADULTS 50+
This week: 0.84 (-9 percent)
Hour 1-3: -16.5 percent
