WWE Raw ratings down only slightly against NCAA tournament

[Big Red Machine]

https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/wwe- ... ent-336736

By Dave Meltzer | @davemeltzerWON | Mar 23, 2021 2:00 pm



Raw last night was down only one percent from the prior week, which is a big positive given the competition from the NCAA basketball tournament which had games on CBS, TBS, and TNT head-to-head.

Raw averaged 1.82 million viewers, likely boosted by the Fastlane pay-per-view the night before but not enough to offset basketball taking away viewers under the age of 35. Raw did a 0.53 rating in 18-49 and a 0.25 in 18-34, down five and 22 percent from last week. The 18-34 number, where college basketball is extremely strong, tells you that basketball took away a lot of younger viewers.

CBS had two games against Raw, with the early game doing 5.85 million viewers overall and a 1.35 rating in 18-49, and the late game doing 4.22 million viewers and a 1.14 in 18-49. The TBS game did 1.75 million viewers and a 0.56. The TNT game did 1.98 million viewers and a 0.56.

Raw was fourth in 18-49 on cable, fourth in men 18-49, third in women 18-49, fifth in 18-34, and fifth in men 12-34.

Raw was 13th for the night on cable in total viewers, trailing two basketball-related shows and 10 news shows.

As compared to the same week last year, which drew the lowest numbers up to that point in Raw history for a live show, hurt by being early in the pandemic, Raw was down nine percent in viewers, 13 percent in 18-49, and 38 percent in 18-34.

Raw had a lower than usual decline number, which is partially attributable to changing viewer patterns due to daylight savings time. In 12-49, the audience grew each hour, but that was offset by the over 50 drops.

From hour one to three, women 18-49 were down three percent, men 18-49 were up five percent, teenage girls were up eight percent, and teenage boys were up nine percent. But over 50 dropped 10 percent.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 1.88 million viewers
9 p.m. 1.84 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.73 million viewers

[Big Red Machine]

I've only just started watching the show, but based on what I have seen the card is, the fact that this didn't bomb is extremely disappointing.