WWE Raw falls 10% in overall viewership and 12% in 18-49

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Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/02/04/wwe-raw-falls-10-in-overall-viewership-and-12-in-18-49/

Photo courtesy: WWE

WWE Raw saw the show’s audience decline a week removed from the Royal Rumble with a decline of 10% in total viewership along with double-digit decreases among most of the key demos.

The three-hour episode averaged 2,168,000 viewers on the USA Network, down 10% from last week’s figure following the Royal Rumble. While there wasn’t sports competition, cable news coverage of the results from the Iowa caucuses did big numbers.

This was Raw’s second-lowest mark of 2020 with their lowest number of January 13th going against the LSU vs. Clemson football game that did over 25 million viewers.

Raw opened with 2,318,000 viewers featuring Randy Orton in the opening segment. Orton’s response to Edge was promoted throughout the commercial spots. The show dropped 7% in the second hour to 2,164,000 viewers and fell another 7% in the final hour. The show was capped off with a triple threat match with Ricochet defeating Bobby Lashley and Seth Rollins to earn a WWE title shot against Brock Lesnar, who showed up unannounced in the final minute of the show to attack Ricochet.

Raw was the top cable program in the 18-49 demographic registering a 0.67 over the three hours but down 12% from the prior week. Outside of women 12-34 and adults over 50, all the key demos were down double digits led by adults 25-54 dropping 16.5%, men 12-34 down 15% and males 18-34 falling 13.5%.

Females 12-34 were only down 3% from last week and adults over 50 fell 6%.

Year-to-year the show was down 13% from this week in 2019.

Here is the breakdown of the key demos with comparisons to last week and changes from the first hour to the third:

ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.67
Last week: 0.76 (-12%)
Hour 1-3: -12.5%

FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.44
Last week: 0.49 (-10%)
Hour 1-3: -20%

MALES 18-49
This week: 0.90
Last week: 1.04 (-13.5%)
Hour 1-3: -8%

ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.48
Last week: 0.54 (-11%)
Hour 1-3: -10% – this demo was up slightly in the third hour compared to the second

FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.28
Last week: 0.29 (-3%)
Hour 1-3: -13% – the third hour was unchanged from the second

MALES 12-34
This week: 0.56
Last week: 0.66 (-15%)
Hour 1-3: -5% – the third hour curbed the trend and was up from a 0.52 to a 0.56 in the third hour

ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.76
Last week: 0.91 (-16.5%)
Hour 1-3: -12%

ADULTS 50+
This week: 1.02
Last week: 1.09 (-6%)
Hour 1-3: -8.5%

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I was definitely one of the viewers that got pulled away bc of the Iowa caucus. I tried watching both for the first hour, realized that Raw actually seemed pretty good, and decided to switch over to the caucus full time so I could pay more attention to Raw later on DVR.

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Was there any major competition? On the surface this looks bad

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Caucus ended with a non-finish. Bullshit.

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And the results we’re getting today just look like 50/50 booking. Can’t they just give one of these candidates a strong push?

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Forgive my ignorance bc I am Canadian - but why are the Democrats unable to find someone younger to run against Trump? it stupidly seems like the two older farts in Bernie and Biden will win and basically run an old man against another old man. Which probably means Trump wins. Didn’t they realize with Obama that they need a young dynamic candidate to run against the GOP Institution

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Appreciate the question, but I don’t have a good answer for you. Seems obvious to me, but if it was as simple as you and I are making it sound, it probably would have happened. So without getting too much into the actual politics (which always turns bad on the Internet), here’s my take:

The two major American political parties are so heavily entrenched in bureaucracy. Senators and congresspeople spend years being told to “wait their turn” by more senior members. And then when it is their turn, they’re just as unwilling to give up their spot to the younger generation. As a wrestling fan, that’s probably not a surprising concept to you.

This is how somebody like Trump happens in the first place. Not that he’s from the younger generation, but he was someone other than a career politician who actually made it to the national ballot. And that captivated a lot of Republicans and Independents who don’t normally vote. Meanwhile, Hilary Clinton was pretty much created in a lab to be President. Her campaign based a lot of their decisions on the premise that she would just pick up Obama’s votes from 2008 and 2012, but instead she did little to inspire the Democrats and Independents the way that Trump did on the other side.

Or it was the Russians. :grimacing:

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Another part is like it or not a lot of Americans still lean toward old straight white men for their candidates in general because it is the norm. Beyond that name recognition is huge and people that have been around a long time have known names. It is the same reason wrestling fans pop for legends.

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As a fellow Canadian, but that somewhat follows politics in the US, it sounds like Joe Biden reaches a demographic that many of the younger candidates do not reach. I think this is likely because of his association with Obama. As for Bernie Sanders, he has a lot of energy and riles up younger voters within his base in a very loud manner, making him seem more popular than I think he actually is nationwide. The point about old white men being most electable I think is also true, sadly.

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Biden got smoked in Iowa, will lose in New Hampshire. If he doesn’t win in South Carolina he’s done. Notice that Obama hasn’t endorsed him.

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Iowa doesn’t mean everything, but it does mean a lot. I don’t think this is Joe Biden’s race to win, but I think he has broader appeal in a national poll than Sanders does.

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  1. Raw is good right now so who gives a shit?

  2. Bernie 2020. Give decency a chance. Don’t be like us Brits. (Or like you in 2016…)