WWE Raw ratings hold up well against NBA and NHL playoffs
Raw ended up last night doing almost identical to the previous week in totals, but the pattern was very different likely due to the NBA playoffs.
Raw averaged 1.82 million viewers with a 0.58 rating in 18-49 and a 0.43 in 18-34.
The viewers were down 3,000 from last week, which is 0.2 percent, while 18-49 was down two percent and 18-34 was also down two percent.
However, the first two hours were big, but there was a huge third hour drop against the start of the Warriors-Kings game on TNT that did 4,322,000 viewers and drew a 1.54 in 18-49.
Raw was fourth on cable behind the two NBA games and the Inside the NBA Playoffs show at 12:55 a.m. after the second game that still did 1.54 million viewers and a 0.65.
Raw also beat every show on network TV last night, which seemingly were hurt even worse than Raw by the NBA playoffs as it beat American Idol (0.53), The Voice (0.51) and 911 (0.51).
On cable, Raw beat Boston vs. Florida in the NHL playoffs (1,072,000/0.37) on ESPN as well as Los Angeles vs. Edmonton on ESPN (483,000/0.19), the New York Islanders vs. Carolina on ESPN2 (642,000/0.21) and Minnesota vs. Dallas on ESPN2 (561,000/0.21).
Raw was third behind the two NBA games in women 18-49, fourth in men 18-49, fourth in people 18-34, fourth in women 12-34 and fourth in men 12-34.
It was 10th in total viewers behind six news shows and three NBA-related shows.
Raw was up 10 percent in viewers from last year going against similar sports competition, as well as up 23 percent in 18-49 and up 34 percent in 18-34. If you factor in the loss of cable homes over the the past year, the real gains were 17 percent in viewers, 30 percent in 18-49 and 42 percent in 18-34, which is phenomenal growth year-to-year.
The Warriors-Kings game did lead to Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & Matt Riddle vs. Judgment Day not keeping the audience in the third hour as well as most recent weeks.
The first-to-third hour declines were 28 percent in women 18-49, seven percent in men 18-49, 33 percent in women 12-34 and 16 percent in men 12-34. The decline with people over 50, which is the majority of the WWE audience, was 18 percent from hour one to three.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 1.95 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.92 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.58 million viewers
