WWE Raw ratings down for season premiere

With opposition from a strong NFL number, Raw’s season premiere did 1.78 million viewers and a 0.52 in 18-49, down four percent in viewers and nine percent in 18-49 from last week’s draft show.

The decline is probably less than would be expected, particularly since the Dallas Cowboys vs. Arizona Cardinals NFL game did 11.32 million viewers and 3.57 in 18-49.

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Raw was 30th overall, but beat all entertainment shows, trailing only ESPN football related telecasts and news channels. It was fourth in 18-49, beating everything but NFL related programming on cable.

The first-to-third hour drop of six percent was much lower than usual, so the audience that tuned in stayed longer than usual,which is a good sign for how the audience saw the quality of the show. Another factor is that the second hour beat the first hour, meaning a lot of people tuned in late, perhaps due to the early football game on FOX that did 12.16 million viewers and a 3.5 in 18-49. That meant the length wouldn’t affect them as much in hour three.

As compared to the same week last year, the show was down 24 percent in viewers, 31 percent in 18-49, and 42 percent in 18-34.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 1.81 million viewers
9 p.m. 1.84 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.69 million viewers