U.S. television wrestling continued to take a hit as last night's Raw averaged 1.54 million viewers, including setting its record for the least viewed hour ever for a prime time Raw on the USA Network when hour three did 1.26 million viewers. Raw's 18-49 rating was slightly up to a 0.41 while the 18-34 rating was a 0.25.
That's a lower third hour than on holidays like July 4 or New Year's Eve or Christmas Eve, with the show in hour three built around Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka.
Every wrestling program except NXT had major declines this past week.
Raw also set a record with its first-ever 28 percent decline from hour one to hour three.
Raw was sixth for the night on cable television, trailing NFL-related programming on ESPN and ESPN2.
The New Orleans Saints vs. Tampa Bay game did 10.13 million viewers and a 2.72 demo rating on ESPN and 1.14 million and 0.38 on ESPN2.
Barmageddon, after the third hour of Raw, hosted by Nikki Bella and promoted tremendously during the show, debuted at 650,000 viewers and a 0.18, putting it in the number 15 spot for the day and behind only the NFL game on ESPN and ESPN2 in the time slot.
Raw beat CBS in hour three and beat Fox all night among network shows.
Raw was down eight percent in viewers from last week, but up two percent in 18-49. It was down 19 percent in 18-34.
From last year, where the show this week did a record low in 18-49 against a monster football game, Raw was down four percent in viewers, up 16 percent in 18-49, and up 32 percent in 18-34, and factoring in the decline in homes getting the station, realistically it's a two percent increase in viewers, a 23 percent gain in 18-49, and a 39 percent gain in 18-34.
Raw was sixth in women 18-49, seventh in men 18-49, sixth in 18-34, fifth in women 12-34, and seventh in men 12-34. It was behind only NFL-related programming except for 90 Day Single Life beat Raw in women 18-49 and women 12-34. Raw was 20th in total viewers, trailing only NFL-related shows, news shows, and 90 Day Single Life, which would be the first time an entertainment show on Monday has beaten Raw in total viewers in months.
The first-to-third hour declines were 30 percent with women 18-49, 18 percent with men 18-49, 30 percent with women 12-34, 26 percent in men 12-34, and 27 percent with people over 50.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 1.75 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.60 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.26 million viewers
Despite the viewership drop, Raw's 18-49 demo rating was up slightly from last week.
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Hopefully it's just a weird phase of downtime before the Road to Wrestlemania starts to really get going.
