Post-Wrestlemania RAW draws 4.08 million viewers, down from 2015

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Dave Meltzer | @davemeltzerWON | Apr 5, 2016 2:21 pm

The Raw after WrestleMania, usually the highest rated episode of the year, did 4.08 million viewers, down from 5.35 million for the same show in 2015.

The number was the largest for the show since the day after the Royal Rumble (when Dwayne Johnson made an appearance) and was only the second show to hit four million viewers on average since June.

However, the number is well below what would have been expected for the show. For a comparison, the audience grew 1.2 million viewers from the go-home Mania show to the day after Mania show last year, while this year, the increase was just 318,000 viewers.

Raw was fourth for the night on cable, and all three shows that beat it were focused on the NCAA championship game on TBS. The game did 13.85 million viewers, the pregame show did 9.67 million viewers, and the postgame show did 4.97 million viewers. The basketball barely impacted ABC's Dancing With the Stars which did 11.72 million viewers, down from 11.97 million the week before.

RAW had a familiar pattern with the big drop in the third hour when the game was in its second half. RAW's main event was a #1 contender's match between AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Cesaro, and Chris Jericho.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 4.29 million viewers
9 p.m. 4.18 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.82 million viewers