WWE Raw viewership reaches non-holiday record low
Raw numbers last night were not good, as even coming the day after a pay-per-view and without a big football game, the show set the all-time non-holiday low with 2.05 million viewers.
The previous low was for the November 11 episode that did 2.06 million viewers, but that went against the San Francisco 49ers-Seattle Seahawks game that did 15.98 million viewers. Last night’s New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts game did 11.06 million viewers.
The only episodes in the modern era to do fewer viewers were shows that aired on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve this past year.
The show started low, meaning not much curiosity or interest coming off TLC, and as is the case with most wrestling television shows, lost viewers throughout.
What was rare is that in 18-49, besides NFL related shows that always beat Raw, it also lost to three episodes of Love & Hop Hop as well as Below Deck on Bravo in the 18-49 demo.
Overall, Raw was 12th for the night, but only lost in overall viewers to news and football related programming.
Because the open was low, the actual drops were not unusually high, but they were there. First-to-third hour in women 18-49 dropped 20 percent,first-to-third in male 18-49 dropped 24 percent, teenage girls dropped 34 percent, teenage boys dropped 20 percent, and the only reason the drops were not near record breaking was because the major audience, those over 50, were only down eight percent.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 2.20 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 2.10 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.86 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.