Monday’s episode of Raw fell below 1.8 million viewers marking its lowest viewership since the return of live fans.
Without competition from the Olympics, the episode from Orlando averaged 1,790,000 viewers with 629,000 viewers (0.49) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.
The numbers were down from 1,821,000 and 657,000 respectively from last week. Since the return of live fans, Raw is averaging 1,837,000 viewers and 665,500 in 18-49 including this week’s program.
The show focused on Randy Orton’s first appearance in seven weeks as he opened the show and headlined against AJ Styles.
In Canada, Raw did a strong figure with 266,100 viewers and 104,500 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. It was the top sports program in the country on Monday, although it wasn’t a strong night of competition with the next slots occupied by Around the Horn, NBA Summer League, and Pardon the Interruption.
This past Friday’s edition of SmackDown averaged 2,169,000 and 792,000 in 18-49 (0.61) on Fox. It was the show’s best performance since July 16th, which was the first show back with fans in attendance. (Brandon Thurston)
It was an impressive number because John Cena didn’t appear on the show and it was still going against the Olympics. The show included Finn Balor defeating Baron Corbin followed by an angle where Balor was attacked by Roman Reigns and The Usos to close the show.
In Canada, SmackDown averaged 133,400 and 50,800 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. The show topped last week’s AEW Homecoming show in total viewers but AEW was ahead in 25-54.
Last week’s episode of SmackDown in Canada was greatly hurt by the Toronto Blue Jays’ home opener that saw SmackDown fall to 99,500 viewers and 38,700 in 25-54.
