WWE Raw followed its Extreme Rules pay-per-view with an episode advertising Big E. and Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship against a major football game.
The September 27th edition of Raw from Cincinnati averaged 1,709,000 viewers and 621,000 (0.48) in the 18-49 demographic, per Showbuzz Daily and Brandon Thurston from Wrestlenomics.
Raw finished seventh for the night on cable behind Monday Night Football and all its related coverage. It was a massive game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles that averaged 12,901,000 viewers on ESPN and 1,890,000 on ESPN 2. The ESPN broadcast did a monstrous 4.11 in the 18-49 demo.
Raw began with 1,818,000 and 0.49 in the 18-49 demographic, the audience dropped to 1,714,000 and 0.48 in the second hour, and fell further to 1,596,000 and 0.46 in the third hour, which included the Steel Cage Match main event for the WWE Championship.
In the 18-49 comparison between WWE and AEW, last week’s episode of Dynamite from Arthur Ashe Stadium averaged 627,000 viewers and this week’s Raw was at 621,000 (not including DVR viewership for either program). Last week’s Dynamite was ahead in males 18-49, adults 18-34, and males 12-34 against this week’s Raw.
Against a bigger football game this week, Raw dropped 4.7 percent in viewers and 3.3 percent in the 18-49 demographic from last week.
The show was hurt with young males as 12-34 was down 29 percent from last week and decreased by 9.5 percent throughout the episode. Adults 18-34 dropped 16 percent this week, however, that demo stayed even throughout the show. Females 18-49 and Adults 50+ both dropped 13 percent throughout the show.
In Canada, Raw averaged 222,400 viewers and 94,100 in the 25-54 demographic, which represent gains of 21 and 3.4 percent respectively from the week prior. It was #3 among sports programming for the night behind Monday Night Football and NHL pre-season game between Toronto and Montreal.
Here is a breakdown of the key demos and how the show performed over the three hours with comparisons to last week in brackets:
ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.48 (-3.3 percent)
Hour 1-3: -6 percent
FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.36 (+6 percent)
Hour 1-3: -13 percent
MALES 18-49
This week: 0.59 (-9 percent)
Hour 1-3: -5 percent
ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.27 (-16 percent)
Hour 1-3: Even
FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.20 (-13 percent)
Hour 1-3: +5 percent
MALES 12-34
This week: 0.24 (-29 percent)
Hour 1-3: -8 percent
ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.60 (-5 percent)
Hour 1-3: -9.5 percent
ADULTS 50+
This week: 0.86 (-3 percent)
Hour 1-3: -13 percent
