WWE Raw ratings down for night two of draft
After the weak draft special on Friday night, combined with a monster NFL game, Raw fell to 2.28 million viewers for the second part of the draft
This compares 2.67 million viewers the last time Raw had a draft-type special in April, and 3.62 million viewers for the 2018 version of the shake-up. One can clearly say that Friday ruined whatever drawing power the draft gimmick had left.
On the flip side, if the draft meant nothing and SmackDown can maintain next week the number it got on Friday, that would be a great sign going forward.
Raw was only 12th for the night on cable, and the first-to-third hour drop was 20.8 percent, which would be top ten in first-to-third hour drops of all-time.
The main competition was a Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Lions NFL game that did 13.34 million viewers on ESPN and a St. Louis Cardinals vs. Washington Nationals baseball game that did 3.65 million viewers. Still, the competition was no tougher than last week when there was no draft and the show did two percent higher than this week, but last week did come a day after a PPV.
As far as where the audience fell off, women 18-49 fell 21 percent from the first to third hour, men 18-49 fell 24 percent, which is almost unheard of, teenage girls fell 35 percent and teenage boys fell 34 percent. The teenage boy drop is also pretty much unheard of. Over 50 dropped 11 percent, which is a normal figure, so the turnoff of this show was with the 49 and under crowd.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 2.52 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 2.32 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 2.00 million viewers