WWE Raw hit a new low this week and continues its rapid decline throughout its presentation of empty arena episodes during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
A new modern low of 1,686,000 viewers was hit over the three-hour episode on the USA Network this week. It falls below the previous low of 1,775,000 viewers for a taped episode of Raw on Christmas Eve 2018.
The show began with 1,807,000 viewers, which was down 7% from last week’s opening hour and would reflect a diminished interest right off the bat. Raw fell 6.5% in the second hour to 1,691,000 viewers and experienced another drop of 7.7% to 1,591,000 in the third hour, which did have a one-minute overrun.
The third-hour figure replaces last week’s third hour as the least-watched hour of Raw in its history.
In the 18-49 demographic, it was down 10% from last week generating a 0.46. To put that in perspective, prior to the empty arena shows, their previous low in the demo for 2020 occurred on January 13th where they did a 0.61 against the LSU vs. Clemson college championship game.
Raw remained the third, fourth, and sixth most-watched programs in the key demo among cable programming Monday.
All the key demos saw decreases led by females 12-34 down 19% and adults 18-34 down 16%.
From the first to the third hour, the largest loss was among adults 25-54 that dropped 16% and adults over 50 fell 15%. The only positives were adults 18-34 growing 10.5% and females 12-34 up 6.25% from the first to third hours.
The show was promoted around a ‘Last Chance Money in the Bank Gauntlet Match’ that took up most of the first hour. The show closed with Drew McIntyre vs. Murphy in a non-title match.
The show was down 25% in total viewers from this week in 2019, which went against the NBA and NHL playoffs.
Here is the demographic breakdown and comparison of the first to third hours:
ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.45 (-10%)
Last week: 0.51
Hour 1-3: -10%
FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.35 (-10%)
Last week: 0.39
Hour 1-3: -8%
MALES 18-49
This week: 0.57 (-8%)
Last week: 0.62
Hour 1-3: -11.5%
ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.21 (-16%)
Last week: 0.25
Hour 1-3: +10.5%
FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.17 (-19%)
Last week: 0.21
Hour 1-3: +6.25%
MALES 12-34
This week: 0.27 (-7%)
Last week: 0.29
Hour 1-3: -11%
ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.58 (-8%)
Last week: 0.63
Hour 1-3: -16%
ADULTS 50+
This week: 0.84 (-5.5%)
Last week: 0.89
Hour 1-3: -15%
