Raw last night averaged 1.77 million viewers, drew a 0.55 rating in 18-49, and drew a 0.37 in 18-34.
Essentially the story in recent weeks is that Raw has had an upswing in younger viewers, particularly 18-34, while losing viewership with people over 50.
Raw was second on cable to the Japan vs. Mexico World Baseball Classic game on FS1 which did 1.89 million viewers and a 0.68 in 18-49. Even though baseball in general draws a much older audience than most sports, the WBC games have been drawing the youngest sports audience of late, even younger than the usual three youngest audiences of soccer, the NBA, and AEW Dynamite.
Raw also beat ABC in hour three, CBS all night, NBC in hour three, and FOX after 9 p.m. The only shows ahead of Raw in 18-49 were the baseball game, The Bachelor (0.63), The Voice (0.64), and Fox's 911 (0.59). During the 10 p.m. hour, Raw was second on television behind the baseball game.
Raw was second to baseball on cable in women 18-49, second in men 18-49, second in 18-34, second in women 12-34, and second in men 12-34. Raw was 11th in total viewers behind the baseball game and nine news shows.
It was up four percent in viewers from last week, up five percent in 18-49, and up six percent in 18-34.
From last year, Raw was up 0.1 percent in viewers, but up 10 percent in 18-49 and up 16 percent in 18-34. Factoring in homes lost, the actual percentage increases were six percent in viewers, 16 percent in 18-49, and 22 percent in 18-34. Again this is another example of the Raw audience being notably younger than heading into last year's WrestleMania.
The big story of the ratings was that Raw held strong for all three hours, which is a feather in the cap of Roman Reigns since he was the person pushed for the final segment of the show. In fact, hour two beat hour one and the first to-third hour audience decline was only three percent.
First-to-third hour drops were only three percent in women 18-49, three percent in men 18-49, no drop in women 12-34, 10 percent in men 12-34, and four percent with people over 50. This is far better than usual.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 1.78 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.81 million viewers
- 10 p.m 1.73 million viewers
damn 50 year olds clearly don’t like good wrestling I guess
