The first Raw of 2023 saw the show fall outside of the top ten on cable for the night with millions following coverage of the NFL game.
The January 2nd edition of Raw from Nashville averaged 1,605,000 viewers and approximately 539,000 (0.41) in the 18-49 demographic and ranked #11 among cable originals. (Data courtesy of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily)
The show was likely affected significantly by the unfortunate injury to Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest during Monday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals which led to the game being called off.
The Bills vs. Bengals game aired on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN 2 with a combined viewership of 23.79 million viewers and 6.24 in the 18-49 demographic across the three networks.
Raw started off very strong with 1,832,000 viewers and 0.46 in the 18-49 demo with the most-watched hour of Raw since November. The show took a major downturn in hour two with 1,597,000 viewers and 0.42 in the demo and another drop to 1,387,000 viewers and 0.36 in the demo for the last hour.
Due to a strong first hour, the declines were pronounced with 24% of the audience tuning out throughout the show and 22% in the 18-49 demographic. The larger decrease throughout the three hours was among adults 35-49 which dropped by 28% while adults 18-34 and 50+ each declined by 26% over the course of the episode.
Compared with the show from two weeks ago (and excluding last week’s “best of” program), the overall viewership was down by 6% and the 18-49 demo dropped by 4%.
The show posted a strong figure in Canada with approximately 228,000 viewers and 114,000 in the 25-54 demographic, which was its largest audience in Canada since Halloween night last October.
Raw included two title matches that were advertised over the past two weeks with Austin Theory vs. Seth Rollins for the U.S. Championship, and Bianca Belair vs. Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women’s Championship.
