WWE Raw Flat In Total Viewership, Slightly Down In Key Demographic
Monday's episode of "WWE Raw" was an eventful one, with the announcement of the rebirth of the World Heavyweight Championship and Bad Bunny appearing at the end of the show to announce that he will be wrestling Damian Priest at Backlash. But with heavy competition from the NBA and NHL playoffs, the advertised major announcement and Bad Bunny appearance did not move the needle beyond where viewership was for the previous week. Per the reporting of ShowbuzzDaily and Wrestlenomics, the April 24 "Raw" averaged 1,815,000 viewers overall across its three hours (identical to last week), approximately 726,000 of which were in the "key demo" most valued by advertisers, adults aged 18 to 49 (down three percent). The latter number translates to a 0.56 rating in P18-49, which earned "Raw" fourth place in ShowbuzzDaily's ranking of the day's cable originals.
For a bigger picture look at where Monday's show performed compared to recent weeks, the Wrestlenomics Patreon page compares viewership across various demographics to the median number among the previous four weeks. By that metric, the biggest percentage gain came in female viewers aged 12 to 34, which was up 12 percent over the median, with adults aged 50+ (up one percent) being the only other demographic to gain compared to the median. The biggest percentage drop came in male viewers aged 12 to 34 at 21 percent; all other drops were in the single digits, with men aged 18 to 49 (down nine percent) seeing the next-biggest percentage decrease.
Hour-over-hour, "Raw" bucked the usual trend of losing viewers throughout the show. The first hour averaged 1,840,000 viewers with a 0.55 rating in P18-49, but it jumped to 1,939,000 viewers and a 0.59 key demo rating in the second hour before dropping to 1,666,000 and 0.54 in the third hour.