WWE Raw ratings down against Nuggets-Lakers NBA playoff game

Going against the Lakers-Nuggets game that did 8.21 million viewers, Raw was down in total viewers (to its lowest number since the end of football season), but was still healthy with the younger demos.

Raw was in a more familiar pattern with the first hour being the highest and a normal drop through the show, unlike the past few weeks where often the second hour has done significantly better than the first.

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Raw averaged 1.64 million viewers with a 0.54 rating in 18-49 and a 0.40 rating in 18-34.

Raw was fifth on cable behind the NBA game and shows before and after the game on ESPN.

Raw beat the Carolina vs. Florida NHL playoff gave that did 1.54 million viewers and a 0.48 for the fifth spot.

Raw was fourth in women 18-49, fifth in men 18-49, fifth in people 18-34, fourth in women 12-34, and fifth in men 12-34. In each case the only thing beating it was ESPN coverage of the NBA and SportsCenter immediately after the game. Raw was 10th in total viewers behind three shows on ESPN and six news shows.

Raw was down five percent in viewers from last week, down seven percent in 18-49, and down two percent in 18-34.

From one year ago, it was down five percent, the first time in a long time the viewer number for Raw was lower than the same week one year ago. However, to show the change in the audience to much younger viewers, even though total audience was down, 18-49 was up 31 percent from one year ago and 18-34 was up 38 percent. And factoring in homes lost to USA Network, the real percentage changes were viewers basically even, 18-49 up 39 percent, and 18-34 up 46 percent.

So the key takeaway is that the year-to-year gains in the key demo, even with similar total viewers, are outstanding.

First-to-third hour changes saw women 18-49 down 15 percent, men 18-49 down four percent, women 12-34 down 19 percent, men 12-34 stayed even, and people over 50 dropped 15 percent.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 1.72 million viewers9 p.m. 1.69 million viewers10 p.m. 1.50 million viewers