WWE Raw returned to the USA Network this past Monday with a strong rebound including its best 18-49 number of the year.
The February 21st edition of the show following the Elimination Chamber event averaged 1,826,000 viewers and approximately 662,000 (0.51) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
The average viewership was its second-highest of the year behind the Raw following the Royal Rumble while the 18-49 audience was the show’s highest since November 22nd following the Survivor Series.
Raw finished first among cable originals by a wide margin ahead of Tucker Carlson Tonight (0.32).
The top network program on Monday was America’s Got Talent: Extreme, which averaged 4,485,000 and 0.71 in the 18-49 demographic. The NBC series features Nikki Bella as one of the judges.
Last week’s episode of Raw on Syfy averaged 1,602,000 viewers and 574,000 (0.44) in the key demo.
Going back three weeks to Raw’s last airing on USA, the January 31st episode averaged 1,865,000 and 0.47 in 18-49.
Males 18-49 performed exceptionally well this week with 428,000 viewers (its highest mark since the draft last October) compared to 384,000 for the January 31st episode, per Brandon Thurston.
The major difference between the show from three weeks ago was adults 50+, which did a 0.97 three weeks ago and 0.91 this week. The demo dropped from 0.98 to 0.83 throughout the episode this week.
This week’s episode started with the first hour averaging 1,945,000 viewers and 0.54 in 18-49. The second hour dropped to 1,868,000 and 0.52 in the demo and then, the usual third-hour drop saw an average of 1,666,000 viewers and 0.47 in the demo.
Throughout the episode, the overall viewership dropped 14 percent while the 18-49 declined by 13 percent over the course of three hours.
The largest decline throughout the episode was in the 18-34 demo, which fell 23 percent from the first to the third hour.
In Canada, WWE Raw averaged 178,400 viewers and 75,800 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. Last week’s episode averaged 195,100 and 91,500 respectively.
