The NBA playoffs continue to dominate cable viewership as WWE Raw fell to a three-month low on the USA Network.
The April 25th edition of the show from Knoxville averaged 1,613,000 viewers and approximately 571,000 (0.44) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
WWE Raw last night on USA Network:
1,613,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.44 (571,000)Lowest in total and P18-49 since January 17.
📊 More demos & analysis: https://t.co/1SscdBCpr8 pic.twitter.com/RkX0019VmF
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) April 26, 2022
The drop of two percent in viewership and seven percent among its key demo contributed to Raw hitting its lowest numbers since January 17th, excluding the episodes that aired on Syfy in February.
Raw aired against back-to-back NBA playoff games, which topped the cable charts for TNT on Monday. The early game between Boston and Brooklyn finished first with 3,833,000 viewers and 1.33 in 18-49 and the late game between Utah and Dallas was second with 3,186,000 and 1.33 in the demo. NBA TV aired the Toronto vs. Philadelphia game that averaged 575,000 viewers and 0.26 in 18-49 finishing #10 on cable.
WWE Raw finished fourth among cable originals behind the NBA programming on TNT.
Raw started low with 1,701,000 viewers and 0.43 in the 18-49 demo for the opening hour of the program. It was their lowest first hour since March 14th in terms of overall viewership. The show fell to 1,669,000 viewers but increased to 0.45 in the demo for the second hour of the show and had the third-hour drop to 1,472,000 viewers and back to 0.43 in the demo.
From hour one to hour three, the show fell 13 percent in viewers while the 18-49 demo remained the same by the end. The 18-34 demo dropped seven percent while males 18-49 grew by four percent throughout the show. There was a big loss among 50+, which fell 20 percent throughout the show.
Male viewership fell by 35 percent among 18-34s and dropped 15 percent in 18-48. However, that was somewhat mitigated by women 18-34 increasing by 19 percent and 18-49s up by seven percent compared with last week’s numbers.
In Canada, the show was moved to OLN due to Sportsnet 360’s coverage of the NHL which led to the number dropping 76 percent from last week with an average of approximately 66,000 viewers and 41,000 in the 25-54 demographic. On an interesting note, Sportsnet 360 aired a replay of WWE Raw from Midnight ET until 3 a.m. and beat the OLN figure with approximately 80,000 viewers and 44,000 in the 25-54 demo.
Raw was promoted around the 20th anniversary of Randy Orton’s main roster debut which led to an eight-man tag at the end of the show. The show included Bianca Belair defending the Raw Women’s Championship in her hometown, an arm-wrestling challenge between Bobby Lashley and Omos, and Becky Lynch’s first appearance on the program since WrestleMania 38.
