Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2022/09/08/wwe-raw-posts-third-highest-audience-of-the-year-ranks-2-on-cable/
WWE Raw dropped out of the top spot of the cable rankings on Monday despite attracting its third-largest audience of the year.
The Labor Day edition of Raw averaged 2,054,000 viewers and approximately 757,000 (0.58) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
The overall audience dropped 2.5% from last week but was still the third largest of 2022 trailing the August 29th and April 4th shows this year. This was a good sign for Raw holding up against sports competition as they faced a college football game between Clemson and Georgia Tech that finished first on cable with 4,859,000 viewers and 1.36 in the key demo. The competition intensifies next week with the return of Monday Night Football.
Prior to this week, Raw had been the top show on cable on Mondays for five of the previous six weeks.
Raw was down 1.5% in 18-49 with a small increase among females in the demo and a slight decline among males. Adults 18-34 were essentially flat last week with a 1% decline and adults 35-49 were similar with a 2% drop.
WWE Raw averaged 2,088,000 viewers and 0.60 in 18-49 for the first hour of the show coming off Saturday’s Clash at the Castle event. In the second hour, the audience increased to 2,120,000 and stayed at 0.60 with the third hour dropping to 1,954,000 and 0.54. The show was headlined by a steel cage match between Bobby Lashley and The Miz for the United States Championship. From the first to the third hour, the audience fell by 6% and the 18-49 dropped by 10%.
The largest audience to tune out throughout the show was males 18-49 which fell 12.5% from the first hour to the third.
In Canada, there were a lot of sports that day with a Toronto Blue Jays doubleheader and CFL games on Labor Day. Raw ranked seventh among sports programming and averaged 268,800 viewers and 133,100 in the 25-54 demographic and up from last week’s numbers of 255,800 and 131,800 respectively.
Next week’s show from Portland will include Edge vs. Dominik Mysterio, Raquel Rodriguez & Aliyah defending the women’s tag titles against Dakota Kai & IYO SKY, and Johnny Gargano’s first match since his return.