Image: WWE
Coming off Sunday’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view and the WWE Championship change, Raw got an increase to 1.89 million viewers, the same number the show did the day after the Royal Rumble, with a 0.57 rating in 18-49.
Raw was first by a wide margin in 18-49 on cable against easier competition. The number two show — Watch What Happens Live on Bravo — did a 0.37. Raw didn’t beat any network shows in that demo. Raw was 13th for the night in total viewers on cable, which is better than the show has been doing.
It’s a good sign that Raw equaled the day after the Rumble, which is likely due to a combination of weaker competition and changing the WWE title the night before.
As compared to last week, Raw was up four percent in viewers, was equal in 18-49, and was down 10 percent in 18-34, so it had more viewers but also skewed older than last week.
As compared to the same show one year ago, it was down 14 percent in viewers, 20 percent in 18-49, and 45 percent in 18-34, so it was a much older audience than a year ago, but it always is.
College basketball on ESPN averaged 827,000 viewers and a 0.22 rating in 18-49 for the early game and 590,000 viewers and a 0.14 for the late game, which was the only sports competition.
The first-to-third hour drop of 11 percent was normal. By category, the drops were 15 percent for women 18-49, nine percent for men 18-49, up 21 percent in teenage girls which is usually a category that tunes out late, but down 30 percent with teenage boys and down eight percent in over 50.
The three hours were:
8 pm. 1.98 million viewers
9 p.m. 1.93 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.77 million viewers