The ‘Raw is XXX’ special was a major hit as was the top program on all of television on Monday.
The 30th-anniversary special from Philadelphia saw Raw achieve its highest audience since February 2020 with 2,344,000 viewers and approximately 908,000 (0.70) in the 18-49 demographic, finishing first among all network and cable programming on Monday. (Data: Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily)
It was the largest viewership for the program since Feb. 17, 2020, and the highest 18-49 audience since the night after WrestleMania 36 in April 2020.
Raw is XXX topped two college basketball games on ESPN as well as The Neighborhood on CBS, and The Bachelor on ABC in the 18-49 demographic.
The show was bolstered by a commercial-free opening hour that averaged 2,635,000 viewers and 0.80 in the key demographic while hitting 1.07 among males 18-49 and 0.54 in adults 18-34. The first hour included a near-thirty-minute ‘Trial of Sami Zayn’ segment involving members of The Bloodline followed by a tag title defense by The Usos against The Judgment Day.
The second hour averaged 2,373,000 viewers and 0.69 in the demo while the final hour stayed above two million viewers with 2,024,000 and 0.60 in the demo.
Compared with the previous week, viewership shot up by 57 percent while the 18-49 audience grew by 67 percent, and the 18-34 rose by 66 percent.
Because of the extremely high opening hour, there was a large decline by the third hour with viewership dropping by 23 percent throughout the program and the 18-49 audience falling by 25 percent.
It was a similar story in Canada with Raw averaging 381,000 viewers and 167,500 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. It was larger than any episode of Raw in 2022 in Canada and you would likely have to go back years to find a higher Canadian audience for the show. It was way up from last week’s audience of 214,200 and 101,500 in the demo.
Raw was second among all sports programs in Canada on Monday behind the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. New York Islanders that averaged 833,600 viewers on Sportsnet.
It is also worth noting that a two-hour edited version of Raw on Sportsnet 360 that aired at Midnight ET also made it into the top ten sports programs for the night with 104,400 viewers and 67,700 in the demo.
