By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Monday’s WWE Raw television show averaged 1.737 million viewers for USA Network, according to Showbuzzdaily.com. Viewership was up from the 1.652 million average from last week. Raw delivered a 0.45 rating in the 18-49 demographic, up from last week’s 0.44 rating.
Powell’s POV: The first hour of Monday’s Raw averaged 1.749 million viewers. Hour two drew 1.816 million viewers. The final hour of the show averaged 1.646 million viewers. The three hours of Raw finished third, first, and second respectively in the 18-49 demographic in Monday’s cable ratings. Raw benefitted from the lack of NBA and NHL playoff competition last night. The May 17, 2021 edition of Raw delivered 1.823 million viewers and a 0.48 rating in the 18-49 demographic for the night after WWE Backlash.
Raw viewership went up last week as well, even with NBA and NHL competition. No reason to think the lack of games was the reason this week.
Oh, boy. They finished in the top three spots on cable television. Are you really going to tell me that they would have done that had there been an NBA game? An argument can be made that the Raw numbers are somewhat disappointing given the lack of competition. They’ll take the top three spots. That’s great. But the viewership total? Meh. Also, are you going to compare the Raw numbers to last year or do you only do that when it makes AEW look bad?