By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Monday’s WWE Raw television show averaged 1.729 million viewers for USA Network, according to Wade Keller of PWTorch.com. Viewership was up from last week’s 1.687 million average. Raw delivered a 0.60 rating in the 18-49 demographic, up from last week’s 0.55 rating.
Powell’s POV: The show also featured a surprise appearance by The Rock. One year earlier, the March 27, 2023 edition of Raw delivered 1.843 million viewers and a 0.56 rating in the 18-49 demographic for the WrestleMania 39 go-home show.
Punk’s segment drew 2.2 million with a 500k increase over the preceding segment and the largest attendance for Raw since 2017.
Under 2 million viewers leading up to the “Biggest Wrestling Show” aren’t great numbers.
A little over 1/3 of Americans have cable. Another 15-16 million have live streaming TV. Getting nearly 2 million people to watch is a decent job. The Raw numbers are usually the top 3 hours for total viewership on all of cable on Monday nights.
Under 2 million are not big numbers.
Tell me you don’t understand how anything works without telling me you don’t know how anything works.
The 3 hours of Raw were #3, #4, and #6 this week and that was only because the women’s NCAA tournament all time viewership numbers thanks to Caitlin Clark being the biggest star that spot has ever had (Iowa’s game on Monday was the most watched women’s BB game in ESPN’s history).
This isn’t Dynamite routinely finished outside the top 10 cable shows on their night, it’s Raw that finishes 1-3 each Monday unless it’s NFL season or a generational talent like Caitlin Clark shows up. That’s a good thing relative to its usual competition.
I watch the segments I want to watch on YouTube and maaaaybe Hulu. I suspect I’m not alone. JP, I assume these numbers aren’t included, right? If not, it’s bananas that people still look at “television” ratings.
Neilsen has deals with Hulu and YouTube TV. The ratings system isn’t perfect, but ratings absolutely matter to advertisers.