Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/02/25/wwe-raw-falls-9-with-second-hour-topping-the-first/
Photo courtesy: WWE
Monday’s episode of Raw saw a decline in viewership with several big drops in the key demos. The drop was offset by several areas of growth in the third hour.
The three-hour episode from Winnipeg averaged 2,210,000 viewers on the USA Network, which was down 9% from last week and Raw’s third-lowest average of 2020.
The second hour did outdo the first hour by a narrow margin but that also had to do with the first hour being lower than usual with 2,246,000 viewers (the second-lowest opening hour of the year). It grew to 2,278,000 in the second hour and fell 7.5% in the third hour to 2,106,000 viewers.
The first-to-third hour drop was only 6% as compared to last week where it was a huge decline of 22%.
The show was hit hard with adults 18-34, which were down 24% this week, as well as the 12-34 audience with women down 27% and men dropping 25% from last week’s ratings. It is worth noting that those three categories were also up double digits last week but the drops this week were bigger than last week’s increases in those respective demographics.
Raw did a 0.71 in the 18-49 demographic, which was down 10% but still put Raw in the top position able cable programs on Monday.
When looking at the comparison of how the show performed in the first hour compared to the third, a rarity occurred with several demos increasing in the final hour. Adults 18-34 were up 14% in the third hour, women 12-34 were up 39%, and women 18-49 increased 8% from the first hour.
So, it was a smaller audience tuning in this week but they did a better job retaining and even growing, the audience throughout the show.
Compared to this week last year, Raw was down 29% this year, although last year’s episode featured the major announcement from Roman Reigns that his leukemia was in remission and was a big news story going into the show. Last year’s show also featured a birthday party segment for Ric Flair and did 2,922,000 viewers.
Here is a breakdown of the key demos from Monday and how the first hour did compared to the third:
ADULTS 18-49
This week: 0.71 (-10%)
Last week: 0.79
Hour 1-3: -4%
FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.51 (-9%)
Last week: 0.56
Hour 1-3: +8%
MALES 18-49
This week: 0.90 (-12%)
Last week: 1.02
Hour 1-3: -9.5%
ADULTS 18-34
This week: 0.47 (-24%)
Last week: 0.62
Hour 1-3: +14%
FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.27 (-27%)
Last week: 0.37
Hour 1-3: +39%
MALES 12-34
This week: 0.56 (-25%)
Last week: 0.75
Hour 1-3: -5%
ADULTS 25-54
This week: 0.85 (-9%)
Last week: 0.93
Hour 1-3: -5%
ADULTS 50+
This week: 1.02 (-5.5%)
Last week: 1.08
Hour 1-3: -5%