WWE Raw managed to tie for first among cable programming on Monday with another night of heavy news coverage.
The February 28th edition of the show averaged 1,754,000 viewers and approximately 611,000 (0.47) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
Raw experienced a three percent decrease in overall viewership while its 18-49 audience dropped by eight percent. It tied Tucker Carlson for first among cable originals with each registering 0.47 in the main demographic.
Fourteen of the top twenty cable programs were from cable news networks with ongoing coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that led to significant spikes among the news networks.
Excluding the two episodes of Syfy, it was Raw’s lowest viewership since January 17th.
Raw opened with 1,738,000 viewers and 0.46 in the 18-49 demographic for the first hour of the show. It grew to 1,836,000 and 0.49 with the second hour being the highest of the three before settling at 1,685,000 and 0.46 in the closing hour.
Raw avoided a major third-hour drop with viewership only falling by three percent throughout the show while the 18-49 demo was even throughout the three hours but did fall from 0.49 to 0.49 from the second to the third hour.
The adult 18-34 audience dropped ten percent from last week but grew by 17 percent throughout the show.
The third hour built towards Edge’s segment where it was revealed that his opponent at WrestleMania will be AJ Styles. They also advertised a United States Championship match between Damian Priest and Finn Balor throughout the week, which was saved for the final hour of the program.
In Canada, the show performed very well with an average of 220,200 viewers and 103,900 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. It was Raw’s highest viewership in the country since January 3rd.
Raw finished fourth in overall viewership among sports programming in Canada and finished second in the demo including edging out the Toronto Raptors vs. Brooklyn Nets in 25-54.
