WWE Television Ratings

[Prodigy]

Monday's episode WWE RAW (4/2) scored a 3.43 rating which was up on last week's 3.04 rating. The episode pulled in over five million viewers (5.01) over two hours which it had not done since the RAW following the Royal Rumble in January.

The first hour averaged 4.96 million viewers while the second hour increased 5.07 million viewers and saw the shocking return of Brock Lesnar.
Last year's post-WrestleMania RAW averaged 5.60 million viewers (10 percent decline in 2012) on an average of 5.42 million first hour viewers and 5.78 million second hour viewers.

Although it's not matched last years this is a solid rating, which I do expect to improve next week with the buzz around Lesnar. Be interesting to see the breakdown and I think Lesnars return could be the best overrun drawer in a while.

 

[AZUCAR!]

It's something WWE can be pleased with.

 

[Heisenberg]

Yeah, that's a nice rating and it'll be up very high next week.

 

[Prodigy]

Not to mention that these ratings were going up against the NCAA game as well. Solid rating!

 

[We Are Legion]

Can't wait to see what the ratings are next week now that everyone knows Lesnar is back. Really hoping it makes a huge difference.

 

[Heisenberg]

WWE Hall of Fame TV ratings - viewership down 26 percent, comparison to Rock-Cena special
WWE's 2012 Hall of Fame special Monday night before Raw scored a 1.86 rating, down from a 2.36 rating for last year's special before Raw.

The one-hour show averaged 2.66 million viewers, down 26 percent from an average of 3.36 million viewers last year.

Monday's special was more in-line with the Saturday night version of the 2009 Hall of Fame special, which averaged 2.58 million viewers for "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Ricky Steamboat inductions.

Also of note is last week's "Rock-Cena" special before Raw scored a 1.6 rating and averaged 2.13 million viewers. The Hall of Fame special topped Rock-Cena by 16 percent in the overall rating and 25 percent in viewership with all of the momentum from WrestleMania behind WWE programming.

It's okay. Last year was higher probably because of HBK.

 

[Troy]

The RAW rating was good but not great. Over 5 million viewers used to be the average RAW viewership and this was post WM where The Rock wrestled, still it went up a fair bit from the week before so at least it went in the right direction.

Next week should open with a huge rating for fans wanting to see what happens with Lesnar as he will surely open the show.

 

[Troy]

As noted before, the April 2nd RAW Supershow on the night after WrestleMania 28 drew a 3.42 cable rating with 5.02 million viewers. In comparison, the RAW in 2011 the night after WrestleMania 27 drew a 3.84 cable rating and 5.62 million viewers.

In the segment breakdown, The Rock opened the show at a 3.6 quarter rating, which is nothing special for the first segment following WrestleMania. Jack Swagger vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Santino Marella lost 295,000 viewers while Alex Riley vs. Lord Tensai in his debut stayed even.

Mark Henry vs. CM Punk gained 148,000 viewers which is bad for that timeslot. The angle with Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio lost 297,000 viewers, which isn’t a bad drop for that part of the show. Kofi Kingston vs. Cody Rhodes stayed even while The Miz vs. Zack Ryder lost 150,000 viewers.

The final segment with John Cena and Brock Lesnar’s return gained 1,036,000 viewers for a 3.9 quarter-rating in the overrun. This was one of the best gain segments of the past few months.

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Very good boost for Lesnar's appearance as you would expect. I firmly believe that WWE have to open the show with Lesnar this week, normally they save them to the end to try to get fans to watch the entire show but it doesn't work as well as they hope. Open with Lesnar and try to start the show with close to a 4.0 rating. The other thing that impressed me was the fact that Lord Tensai's debut didn't lose any viewers but kept it steady.

 

[Heisenberg]

Early 4/6 SD! Rating Note
This past Friday night's edition of WWE Smackdown drew 2.72 million viewers. The final rating should be available shortly.

Wonder what it would be.

 

[Dale]

I no the rating can fluctuate and it's not really as simple as comparing one week to the other, but the Mania go home SmackDown averaged 2.84 million viewers which was a 1.76 overall rating.

 

[Heisenberg]

This past Friday's episode of SmackDown garnered a 1.93 rating with 2.72 million viewers. The number was up from last week's WrestleMania 28 Axxess edition of the show, which scored a 1.76 cable rating and 2.48 million viewers.

Not too bad. They'll start going up again.

 

[Prodigy]

Still a poor rating for Smackdown in my eyes. WWE is past caring with that show.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Last night’s Raw did a 3.1 cable rating, with 4.29 million viewers, down from last week’s 3.4 rating.

.

 

[Heisenberg]

Wow, so.. Lesnar did not help?

 

[Dale]

Not necessarily, it's just the Mania buildup all over again. The big angles will likely get good ratings but the rest of the show drags it back down.