Originally published at Raw After WrestleMania draws big against NCAA, huge number in Canada
WWE Raw scored its highest viewership in over a year coming out of WrestleMania Weekend and going against the NCAA basketball championship game.
The April 4th edition of the show from Dallas averaged 2,101,000 viewers and approximately 820,000 (0.63) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
WWE Raw (post-Wrestlemania) last night on USA Network:
2,101,000 viewers (highest since Jan 4)
P18-49: 0.63 (820,000) (highest since Aug 23)đź“Š More demos & analysis: https://t.co/1SscdBCpr8 pic.twitter.com/7wG9ixOSqm
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) April 5, 2022
It was Raw’s highest overall viewership since the “Legends Night” edition of the program on January 4, 2021, which featured appearances by Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair.
It was also Raw’s highest 18-49 audience since August 23rd of last year following SummerSlam.
The show was up 12 percent in overall viewers and increased 14 percent in 18-49 from last week’s “WrestleMania Raw” episode. The show saw a massive 41 percent increase in adults 18-34 including men growing by 54 percent this week in that demo and women up by 25 percent. Adults 35-49 were flat compared with last with men slightly down but women in the demo up by nine percent.
The show got off to a tremendous start with 2,318,000 viewers and 0.68 in the 18-49 demo for the first hour of the show. It opened with Cody Rhodes appearing on Raw for the first time in six years after making his return at WrestleMania Saturday. It was the most-watched hour in over two years going back to March 16, 2020, for the first Raw inside the empty Performance Center.
The second hour averaged 2,114,000 viewers and 0.63 in the key demo before the third-hour drop to 1,871,000 viewers and 0.58 in 18-49. The show was headlined by Roman Reigns and The Bloodline coming out for a short promo segment after Reigns became the Undisputed Universal Champion on Sunday night by defeating Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania.
The third hour was the most-watched final hour of the program since the Legends Night show in January 2021.
The first-to-third hour drop saw overall viewership decline by 19 percent throughout the episode while the 18-49 fell by 15 percent. The largest drop was in the 50+ demo where it saw a decrease of 23 percent in the rating throughout the episode. Females 18-49 had the smallest decline with only eight percent tuning out throughout the show.
The number is extra impressive given that it aired against the Kansas vs. North Carolina championship game in the NCAA tournament. The game began at 9:18 p.m. ET and was simulcast on TNT, TBS, and truTV with the game being the only programming that topped WWE on Monday night.
The game averaged 9,543,000 viewers and 2.53 in 18-49 on TBS, it did 5,578,000 and 1.45 on TNT, and 1,931,000 and 0.74 on truTV.
Last year’s Raw after WrestleMania was broadcast from inside the ThunderDome and averaged 2,206,000 viewers and 0.68 in 18-49 but did not air against the NCAA final.
In Canada, the show did a monstrous viewership average of 349,000 viewers and 207,000 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. In the time that I’ve regularly been receiving the numbers in Canada, no episode has come close to that viewership figure. We don’t have a breakdown of the other sports programming in Canada but should have it by Wednesday.