WWE Raw ratings down against college basketball
Raw last night did its lowest numbers since football season and actually below a number of weeks during football season with 1.65 million viewers and a 0.54 in 18-49.
Raw was still first on cable and beat everything on all of television except The Bachelor on ABC, which did 3.62 million viewers and a 0.69 in 18-49.
The main cable competition was college basketball on ESPN with Duke vs. North Carolina State against the first hour with 1.32 million viewers and an 0.37 in 18-49 and Texas vs. Baylor against the second and third hours doing 971,000 and 0.30.
The show was down five percent in viewers from last week and five percent in 18-49. Last week’s show was the second lowest number up to that point since the end of football season.
From the same week one year ago, the show was down ten percent in viewers but up six percent in 18-49 owing to the younger audience the show reaches now. If you factor in the homes USA Network has lost in the last year, the more realistic comparison numbers would be a decline of down five percent in viewers but up 16 percent in 18-49.
The show did a relatively normal ratings pattern with a third hour drop for a show featuring Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso in the main event.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 1.72 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.71 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.52 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.