WWE Raw viewership rises, 18-49 demo rating down
Raw last night, which went against NFL games on both ABC and ESPN, was up in viewers over the prior two weeks but down in 18-49.
The show averaged 1.47 million viewers and drew a 0.43 rating in 18-49.
Raw was eighth on cable behind seven NFL-related shows on ESPN and ESPN2.
The Philadelphia Eagles-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game on ABC did 13.72 million viewers and a 3.84 in 18-49. The Los Angeles Rams-Cincinnati Bengals game did 7.69 million viewers and a 2.29 on ESPN and 1.30 million viewers and a 0.43 on ESPN2. The 22.70 million football audience and 6.56 in 18-49 compares to 22.30 million viewers and 6.37 last week, so the football competition was actually tougher this Monday.
Raw was up 10 percent in viewers from last week and 18-49 was down two percent while 18-34 was down five percent.
The total viewers were the best so far this season on Monday against the NFL, but still below what Raw was doing one year ago. The show continues to draw a higher percentage of younger viewers than last year, particularly men, consistent with all WWE programming.
The show started higher than it did the past two weeks but had a bigger third hour drop with a main event of Damian Priest & Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team titles.
From one year ago, Raw was down 12 percent in viewers, down four percent in 18-49, and down three percent in 18-34. Given the drop in cable homes from last year, the real changes would be seven percent down in viewers, but four percent up in 18-49 and six percent up in 18-34, so the drops from last year were viewers over the age of 50.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 1.55 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.53 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.32 million viewers
