By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Monday’s WWE Raw television show averaged 1.557 million viewers for USA Network, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.com. Viewership was up from last week’s 1.511 million average. Raw delivered a 0.43 rating in the 18-49 demographic, down from last week’s 0.48 rating.
Powell’s POV: A minor increase in viewership, yet a drop in the key demo. They are playing up next week’s Raw as the season premiere and have loaded up the lineup, so we’ll see if it leads to a bump in the numbers. The October 10, 2022 edition of Raw delivered 1.824 million viewers and a 0.55 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
1. Raw is clearly no longer the flagship show. Its a 3 hour marathon where nothing super exciting takes place.
2. Even an AWFUL MNF matchup will siphon a lot of viewers away.
I am also going to offer a suggestion. Why doesnt WWE put together a simulcast deal with someone like the CW, to carry the USA show (I was thinking about this mostly for Smackdown but maybe you could do it for a couple of hours of RAW too) similar to how ABC now covers MNF under the ESPN banner. Literally no one is watching any of those CW shows anyway, and it would keep WWE on a (kind of) broadcast network.
Raw and NXT are being shopped right now. USA picking up Smackdown is believed by many to be a result of them not wanting to pay for the package deal of Monday and Tuesday night. If that’s the case, then wherever those two shows end up may be bigger than just a cable network.