Season premiere of WWE Raw sees its audience stabilize, #6 on cable

The season premiere of Raw saw the show stabilize its viewership with a rebound from last week’s low point in the key demo without MLB.

Photo Courtesy: WWE

The season premiere of Raw saw the show stabilize its viewership with a rebound from last week’s low point in the key demo without MLB competition this week.

The October 25th episode from Houston averaged 1,658,000 viewers and 613,000 (0.47) in the 18-49 demographic and finished sixth among cable originals on Monday, per Showbuzz Daily and Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.

This week’s show saw a 4 percent increase in average viewership but a big jump of 19 percent in the 18-49 demo. Last week, the demo hit a 0.39, which was the lowest figure Raw has generated of the data available, and likely, of all-time.

Raw saw big increases in nearly every demo monitored by Showbuzz Daily and led by Females 12-34 increasing by 47 percent, Adults 18-34 up by 32 percent, and Males 18-49 improving by 23 percent.

The show began with 1,727,000 and 0.48 in the 18-49 demo during the first hour of the program, it fell to 1,668,000 and 0.47 in the second hour and finished with 1,580,000 and 0.46 in the final hour. From start to finish, viewership dropped by 8.5 percent and 18-49 fell by 4 percent.

The show was strengthened by a Fatal 4-Way Ladder Match that was announced in the opening segment for the closing half-hour of the program involving Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Rey Mysterio, and Finn Balor.

Raw had less competition compared with last week without the MLB playoffs to contend with. The Monday Night Football game between New Orleans and Seattle averaged 11,189,000 viewers and 3.07 in 18-49 on ESPN, which was down 11 percent in viewers from last week’s game.

In Canada, Raw averaged 173,600 viewers and 84,900 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360, which was its best viewership mark in the country since the Draft on October 4th.

Here is a breakdown of the key demos, changes throughout the show, and comparison to last week:

ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.47 (+19 percent)
Hour 1-3: -4 percent

FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.35 (+13 percent)
Hour 1-3: -8 percent

MALES 18-49
This week: 0.59 (+23 percent)
Hour 1-3: Even

ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.29 (+32 percent)
Hour 1-3: -13 percent

FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.25 (+47 percent)
Hour 1-3: -26 percent

MALES 12-34

This week: 0.27 (+12.5 percent)
Hour 1-3: Even

ADULTS 25-54

This week: 0.57 (+12 percent)
Hour 1-3: -3 percent

ADULTS 50+
This week: 0.83 (-2 percent)
Hour 1-3: -11 percent

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.