WWE Raw ratings don’t get significant post-Royal Rumble bump
In a surprising turn of events, the Royal Rumble did not cause any kind of significant bump to Raw ratings, as last night’s show did 2.40 million viewers, even with it being built around Drew McIntyre and Charlotte Flair making their choices of WrestleMania opponents and the return interview of Edge.
It was down 12 percent from last year’s post-Rumble show that did 2.71 million viewers. To show the ratings decline, for the episode after the Royal Rumble, Raw did 4.10 million viewers in 2016, 3.62 million in 2017, and 3.40 million in 2018.
The first-to-third hour drop of 12 percent was lower than most weeks.
The Raw after the Rumble is usually one of the higher rated episodes of the show during the year, but last night’s episode was actually lower than the December 30 show (Lana/Bobby Lashley wedding) and the September 30 show (Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan appearing). It was also lower than the show was routinely doing last summer prior to football season starting. It was only up 0.9 percent, as compared with a 10 percent jump last year and in 2017. In 2018, the show followed the Raw 25th anniversary episode which was the highest rated Raw in years.
The third hour was the highest rated with teenage girls, but the other demos fell, although not quite as much during the show as most weeks.
Raw was first in the 18-49 demo on cable and finished 15th overall for the night on cable, behind only news programming due to the impeachment coverage.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 2.54 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 2.44 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 2.22 million viewers
Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.