WWE Raw moving to Syfy and going against the Winter Olympics resulted in the expected drop in viewership given those circumstances.
The February 7th edition of the show from Denver averaged 1,387,000 viewers with approximately 470,000 (0.36) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
The show featured a commercial-free opening hour that averaged 1,376,000 viewers and 0.36 in the 18-49 demographic but was not the peak hour of the show as they grew to 1,449,000 viewers and 0.36 in the second hour. The third hour dropped to 1,337,000 viewers while the 18-49 rating was steady at 0.36 for the entire episode.
From hour one to hour three, women 18-49 grew by 23 percent and was the biggest area of growth over the three-hour program. Males 18-49 dropped by 15 percent throughout the show, and 18-34s fell by 8 percent. The 50+ audience only fell by 3 percent from start to finish, but there was a larger drop from 0.78 to 0.70 from the second hour to the final one.
It is misleading to compare to last week’s show for several reasons. The first is the obvious switch in networks from the USA Network to Syfy along with the Winter Olympics airing this week, and last week’s episode following one of the biggest cards of the year for WWE.
In January, Raw averaged 1,718,000 viewers and 577,000 in 18-49. So, the combination of moving to Syfy and going against the Olympics looks to have hurt viewership by 19 percent and the 18-49 demographic dropping 18.5 percent from Raw’s average last month.
This week’s viewership was down by 26 percent from last week, the 18-49 fell by 24 percent, 18-34 dropped by 22 percent and the 50+ demo rating dropped from 0.97 to 0.73.
WWE Raw still managed to beat everything on cable on Monday except the Olympics, which averaged 2,071,000 viewers and 0.40 in 18-49 from 8 p.m. ET until Midnight ET. While the viewership was higher than Raw, four of the last five episodes of Raw on USA topped 0.40 in the key demo.
NBC also aired their coverage of the Olympics, which averaged 8,448,000 viewers and 1.59 in 18-49 beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
In Canada, Raw averaged approximately 167,000 and 72,500 in the 25-54 demo on Sportsnet 360, which was down from the post-Rumble episode that did 218,700 viewers.
Both Raw and NXT 2.0 are airing on Syfy for the next two weeks while the USA Network provides coverage of the Winter Olympics. Next week’s Raw from Indianapolis, Indiana, will feature an appearance by Brock Lesnar, an RK-Broga Party, and Damian Priest defending the United States Championship against AJ Styles on the go-home episode for Elimination Chamber.
