WWE Raw draws huge ratings for 30th anniversary episode
Last night’s Raw drew the largest audience for the show in almost three years with 2.34 million viewers and a 0.70 rating in 18-49.
The 30th anniversary show was expected to do huge numbers because whenever WWE brings back big stars from the past, and this included Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Undertaker, and DX, the numbers always go up with younger viewers.
Because of going commercial free, the first hour averaged 2.64 million viewers and drew a 0.80 in 18-49. It was actually among the biggest first-to-third hour drops in the history of the show, which sounds terrible, but given how big the numbers were, it’s expected. It shouldn’t be viewed negatively when you have a three-hour show and the first hour is commercial free that there is a big drop. And the third hour was still above two million viewers.
In particular, by hour three, most of the key people advertised that would have led to the huge increase in numbers had already appeared on the show, whether it was Hogan, Flair, Undertaker, or the Bloodline trial of Sami Zayn.
Raw was the number one show on television in 18-49, even beating The Bachelor on ABC and The Neighborhood on CBS in the demo. The number two show on cable, the Kansas vs. Baylor college basketball game on ESPN that went head-to-head, did 1,22 million/0.36, so Raw nearly doubled it.
Raw won every key demo by a huge margin on cable except women 18-49. It won that one, but Below Deck did a very strong number for second place.
In total viewers, Raw was sixth for the night, its best showing in a long time. It trailed only five shows on Fox News.
Coming off last week’s episode which went against a football game that did 30 plus million viewers, Raw was up 60 percent in viewers, up 67 percent in 18-49, and up 63 percent in 18-34.
From one year ago, the first show of last year after football ended, Raw was up 33 percent in viewers, up 51 percent in 18-49, and up 69 percent in 18-34.
It was the most viewers for an episode of Raw since February 17, 2020, at a time when Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre were doing big segment numbers on the show.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 2.64 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 2.37 million viewers
- 10 pm. 2.02 million viewers