WWE RAW saw a drop in viewership from last week, here is the analysis as to why it occured.
As per Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily, Monday’s live edition of WWE RAW drew an average of 1,700 million viewers on the USA Network.
Last week the numbers were reasonably better with 1,775 million viewers. This is a drop of 4.22% from last week to this week.
The first hour of this week’s show garnered 1,668 million viewers whereas last week’s show had 1,910 million viewers tuning in.
The second hour of this week’s show drew 1,755 million viewers compared to last week’s second-hour numbers 1,839 million.
The final hour drew 1,678 million viewers this week and it was more than the 1,577 million viewers that last week’s last hour mustered.
This week’s edition of RAW drew a 0.48 rating in the 18-49 key demographic. This was a rise of 6.66% from last week’s 0.45.
According to Wrestlenomics, the 0.48 key demo rating represents 621,000 viewers from the 18-49 bracket. The last week’s numbers in the same 18-49 range were 593,000. Therefore, this week it’s up by 4.72%.
What could be the reason for the drop in viewership?
This week’s RAW had only two advertised segments ahead of the start time. Kevin Owens’ reaction to Stone Cold Steve Austin accepting his invitation for appearing at WrestleMania 38 as a special guest on the KO Show and the Championship Celebration from RAW Tag Team Champions RK-Bro.
As you could see, no matches were announced ahead of time. This could have been one reason why the first hour had such low viewership. As the show progressed the viewership got better.
Some interesting matches were lined up eventually. The likes of Montez Ford versus Matt Riddle, Damien Priest versus Finn Balor, and of course Seth Rollins versus Kevin Owens with the winner hosting Austin at ‘Mania.
Priest versus Balor was a non-title match and it was expected that Finn would defend his United States title at The Show of Shows against Priest. Especially after Priest defeated The Prince this week.
Kevin Owens versus Seth Rollins match and Montez Ford versus Riddle match was impromptu but the priest versus Balor match could have been advertised before the show.
There was also the segment of Becky assaulting The EST Bianca Belair. As the updates were surfacing of exciting matches being scheduled, fans were tuning in. The people who started watching RAW irrespective of what’s in store were far lesser compared to last week.
The biggest reason behind the last hour seeing such an increase in viewership was the Owens versus Rollins match which was the main event. It was already a WrestleMania caliber matchup and with the stakes as high as it was, it grabbed a lot of eyeballs.
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