WWE Raw Ratings See Sharp Drop Opposite Denver Nuggets' NBA Championship Victory

With Monday's Game 5 of the NBA Finals turning out to be the Denver Nuggets' championship-sealing victory over the Miami Heat, it's to be expected that the game would negatively affect the viewership of that night's episode of "WWE Raw." According to reporting from ShowBuzzDaily, as well as Wrestlenomics on both their Twitter and Patreon pages, "Raw" averaged 1,595,000 viewers across its three hours (down 13% from last week), with approximately 599,000 in the "key demo" most valued by advertisers, adults aged 18 to 49 (down 17% from the week prior). The latter figure translates to a 0.46 rating in 18 to 49, which, despite the hit from the NBA game, was still more than enough for "Raw" to be the number-one show in ShowBuzzDaily's rankings of Monday's cable originals.

On ABC, the NBA game averaged 13,084,000 viewers with a 3.98 rating in the key demo. Among those in the key demo watching television during that time, 46.3% of men and 25.2% of women were watching the game. Perhaps thanks to the NBA competition, "Raw" strayed from its recent pattern of peaking in the second hour, instead dropping throughout the show.

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, the biggest percentage change in either direction was a 38% drop from the median in women aged 35 to 49, followed by adults aged 35 to 49 with a 23% loss, women aged 18 to 49 losing 19%, and both adults aged 18 to 49 as well as men aged 18 to 34 dipping by 16%. The biggest percentage gain over the median was in female viewers aged 12 to 34 at 15%, followed by women aged 18 to 34 at 11%.