Raw ratings get a 10 percent increase for WWE Draft night two
While the WWE Draft didn’t move the SmackDown numbers much on Friday, it led to substantial increases for Raw this week as it averaged 1.85 million viewers and a 0.57 rating in 18-49.
The numbers were up 10 percent in both viewers and 18-49 from last week. Part of it was also a big decline in football viewership as the NFL game last night did 10.69 million viewers and a 3.35 rating in 18-49 as compared to the main game last week that did 14.60 million viewers and 4.0 in 18-49. The National League Championship series on FOX head-to-head did 4.20 million viewers and 1.2 in 18-49.
Raw was fifth for the night on cable in 18-49, trailing three NFL-related shows on ESPN and Below Deck Mediterranean (0.59). Overall it was in 32nd place, but beat all cable television programming except NFL-related shows and news shows. Raw also beat the last two hours of CBS, although it lost to the other major networks head-to-head. On cable, Raw was fourth in males 18-49, seventh in overall 18-34 and fifth in males 12-34.
The only negative is that there was a big decline in viewers during the show, as the first hour topped two million viewers.
The 17 percent decline during the show was the largest in some time. The first-to-third hour declines were 16 percent with women 18-49, 11 percent with men 18-49, 17 percent with teenage girls, seven percent with teenage boys, and 16 percent with people over 50.
The key draft picks were already done by the time of the third hour, and hour three was built around a dual-brand battle royal to decide Asuka’s next challenger.
The show was down 19 percent from the same week last year, which is the first under 20 percent year-to-year decline for Raw in months. It was down 23 percent in 18-49, also much lower than in months, as well as 40 percent in 18-34.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 2.01 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.88 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.68 million viewers