WWE Raw Viewership Rebounds Minus NBA Playoff Competition

Between Seth Rollins's first defense of the new World Heavyweight Championship, an unusually impressive rating for "WWE SmackDown" 72 hours earlier, and no NBA playoff competition, the Nielsen ratings for Monday's episode of "WWE Raw" were of particular interest. The results were positive, but maybe not quite as positive as one might have expected coming off a historic "SmackDown." 

According to Wrestlenomics on their Twitter and Patreon pages, the June 5 "Raw' averaged 1,828,000 viewers across its three hours (up 13% from last week), approximately 726,000 of which were in the "key demo" most valued by advertisers, adults aged 18 to 49 (up 6% from the week prior). The latter figure translates to a 0.56 rating in 18 to 49, which, according to ShowBuzzDaily, made it the number one show of the day among cable originals and broadcast prime time, edging out the 0.54 posted by the Stanley Cup Finals game on TNT.

The total viewership was the highest since April 3's post-WrestleMania episode. Also, in an outlier from usual patterns, hour three beat hour one in the key demo, perhaps thanks to the hype for Rollins' first title defense (against the Judgment Day's Damian Priest) closing the show as the main event.

For a more extensive picture, 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, nothing jumped out, as all but one group (all viewers outside of adults 18 to 49, at +16%) fell within Nielsen's stated 10% margin of error. That said, the only demos to show losses compared to the median were various age groups of female viewers being tracked, with 18 to 49 and 35-49 both down 4% as well as 18 to 34 down 3%.