The penultimate edition of WWE Raw before WrestleMania saw a viewership increase despite airing against a major college basketball game.
The March 25 episode from Rosemont, Illinois, averaged 1,729,000 viewers and 754,000 (0.57) in the 18-49 demographic, per Wrestlenomics.
The show’s figures represent increases of three percent in overall viewership and among the core demo from last week.
ESPN won the night on cable with the Iowa vs. West Virginia women’s basketball game featuring Caitlin Clark and averaged 4.9 million viewers. According to Sports Media Watch, the game peaked at 6.4 million viewers and was the most-watched women’s basketball game outside of the Final Four and third largest women’s basketball audience over the past twenty years.
Raw’s major segment occurred between 9-9:15 p.m. ET with 2.2 million viewers for the segment involving CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, and Seth Rollins. The audience grew eighteen percent from the previous quarter and nineteen percent in the 18-49 demographic.
Raw averaged 1,755,000 and 731,000 in the 18-49 demo in the first hour, grew to 1,833,000 and 798,000 in the second hour, and averaged 1,598,000 and 732,000 in the final hour.
The show included an unadvertised appearance by The Rock in the opening quarter and a return at the close of the show to attack Cody Rhodes.
In Canada, the audience fell back to normal after last week’s audience exceeded 400,000 viewers. This week’s show averaged 279,600 viewers and 82,500 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360.
In the country, Raw ranked second among sports programming behind the L.A. Kings vs. Vancouver Canucks and was third in the demo.
