Photo courtesy: WWE
WWE Raw took another plunge this week posting one of its lowest audiences in modern history beginning with a weak opening hour.
The show averaged 1,687,000 viewers that put it within a rounding error of the previous modern-era low of 1,686,000 viewers set on May 4th this year. This week’s show dropped 2.8% from last week’s viewership.
This week’s show was hurt badly by the first hour, which was the lowest first hour of Raw in the history of the program in its three-hour format going back to July 2012. It started with 1,697,000 viewers (for comparison’s sake, the May 4th show started with 1,807,000 viewers). So, that says there was a lack of interest in the show, to begin with rather than turning viewers off later that night.
In fact, the second hour of Raw increased by 3% with 1,752,000 viewers before falling 8% in the third hour to 1,612,000 viewers. The show built to a Champion vs. Champion match between Asuka and Bayley that was promoted throughout the weekend and was the only match announced for Raw until late in the day Monday.
Raw finished 4th, 5th, and 6th among cable programming on Monday night averaging 0.49 in the 18-49 demographic, which is up from 0.48 last week.
Among the key demographics, there were not any radical increases or decreases this week with the largest swing among females 18-49 which dropped 9% this week. Males 12-34 improved by 5.5% and males 18-49 increased by 5% this week.
From the first hour to the third, the largest drop was with adults 18-34 with a 21% drop followed by males 12-34 falling 19.5%, and females 12-34 down 18% in the third hour. Five of the key demos increased from hour one to hour two.
This follows Friday Night SmackDown averaging its lowest viewership ever on Fox with last week’s episode drawing 1,777,000 viewers and 0.4 in the main demo.
Here is a breakdown of Raw’s demos and comparing the first and third hours:
ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.49 (+2%)
Hour 1-3: -2%
FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.31 (-9%)
Hour 1-3: +3%
MALES 18-49
This week: 0.67 (+5%)
Hour 1-3: -6%
ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.31 (+3%)
Hour 1-3: -21%
FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.20 (-5%)
Hour 1-3: -18%
MALES 12-34
This week: 0.38 (+5.5%)
Hour 1-3: -19.5%
ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.62 (+3%)
Hour 1-3: +1.5%
ADULTS 50+
This week: 0.83 (-3.5%)
Hour 1-3: -6%
