WWE Raw Sees Best Viewership In Nearly Three Years

WWE's nostalgia-soaked episodes of "Raw" always pull in viewership above the level of what the show does week to week, but the numbers for Monday night's "Raw Is XXX" special almost certainly blew away all reasonable expectations. Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics reported that with help from a commercial-free first hour boosting the average by discouraging channel-surfing, "Raw" averaged 2,344,000 viewers across its three hours, with 908,000 of those viewers being in the key adults 18-49 demographic most valued by advertisers. The latter figure netted the show a 0.70 rating in the key demo.

According to Thurston, the total viewership is the most since February 17, 2020. It's the best key demo number since April 6, 2020. For context, it should be noted that "Raw" moved to closed tapings with no fans starting with the March 16, 2020 episode due to COVID-19 restrictions. That lasted for 16 months, with "Raw" returning to live arena touring starting with the July 19, 2021 episode in Dallas, Texas.

According to Showbuzz Daily's ranking of Monday's cable originals in the key demo, "Raw," both collectively and under its formal rating as three separate one-hour shows, was number one for the day. Hour by hour, the audience in the key demo dropped as the show went on, from a 0.80 rating for the commercial-free first hour to a 0.69 in the second hour and then a 0.60 in the third. The next highest-ranked show was the 9:07 PM college basketball game on ESPN, which officially took fourth place (realistically second place behind "Raw") with a 0.36 rating in the key demo.

In total viewers, "Raw Is XXX" dipped from 2,635,000 viewers in the commercial-free first hour to 2,373,000 in the second hour and then 2,2024,000 viewers in the third hour.