WWE Raw ratings fall back to normal levels

Raw fell back to normal range after last week’s CM Punk and Randy Orton return episode, averaging 1.53 million viewers on Monday night and drawing a 0.49 rating in 18-49. It’s still tied for Raw’s second best 18-49 number this football season.

The Cincinnati Bengals vs. Jacksonville Jaguars game head-to-head did 16.45 million viewers and a 3.91 in 18-49. The game did 8.87 million and a 1.48 in 18-49 on ABC, 6.61 million and a 2.11 in 18-49 on ESPN, and 964,000 and a 0.32 on ESPN2.

Raw also went head-to-head and beat two NBA In Season Tournament games on TNT, with the Celtics vs. Pacers game doing 1.02 million viewers and a 0.36 in 18-49 and the Pelicans vs Kings against hour three doing 718,000 and a 0.27 in 18-49.

Raw was fifth on cable for the night, behind four shows on ESPN, and USA was behind only ESPN for the night.

Raw was going to be down from last week and was going to still be ahead of normal. The number was likely helped by people expecting Orton or Punk on the show even though neither were advertised.

Raw was down 19 percent in viewers from last week, down 26 percent in 18-49, and down 20 percent in 18-34.

From one year ago, viewers were down 3,000 but 18-49 was up 19 percent and 18-34 was up 55 percent, so the audience has changed greatly, a huge drop with people over 50 but increases with younger viewers. Factoring in the losses of cable homes, the real comparison would be up five percent in viewers, up 31 percent in 18-49, and up 71 percent in 18-34.