WWE Raw Rating Rebounds In Key Demo While Dropping Overall

On the heels of a week where WWE loaded up "Raw" and "SmackDown" with the World Heavyweight Championship tournament to stem the loss of viewers to NBA and NHL playoff games, the company reset for this week's edition of "Raw," which didn't come with the same level of hype, but also had no NBA competition. The results, at least as far as the Nielsen ratings go, were mixed.

According to reporting from ShowbuzzDaily and Wrestlenomics, the May 15 "Raw" averaged 1,716,000 viewers overall across its three hours (down nine percent from last week), approximately 762,000 of which were in the "key demo" most valued by advertisers, adults aged 18 to 49 (up 14 percent from the prior week). The latter figure translates to a 0.58 rating in P18-49, which earned "Raw" second place on ShowbuzzDaily's rankings of Monday's cable originals behind the NHL playoff coverage on ESPN.

The total audience was the lowest since March 13, while the key demo rating was in the range of the best-performing shows since WrestleMania. Year over year, the total audience was down one percent, while the key demo was up a whopping 29 percent.

This is the fourth time in 2023 that the total audience for an episode of "Raw" has been down from the same week in 2022, but it was also the 17th consecutive week that the key demo was up by the same year-over-year metric.

For a bigger picture look at the recent ratings, the Wrestlenomics Patreon page tracks how "Raw" did in various demographics in relation to the median of the prior four weeks' numbers. By that metric, the biggest percentage changes from the median, the only ones to hit double digits, were everyone outside of the key demo dropping by 11 percent and adults aged 50+ following closely with an 11 percent dip. The biggest percentage gain was in women aged 18 to 49, which saw an eight percent from the median. followed by six percent for adults aged 35 to 49. Adults aged 25 to 54, meanwhile, saw no change from the median.