Season premiere of WWE Raw hit by return of NFL, continues strong run in Canada

WWE felt the full impact of the return of Monday Night Football posting its second-lowest viewership of the year on the USA Network.

The September 9 season premiere from Calgary averaged 1,430,000 viewers and 603,000 (0.45) in the 18-49 demographic, representing a decline of 14% in viewership and 8% in the core demo from last week. (Courtesy: PW Torch & Wrestlenomics)

If you eliminate the third hour of Raw this week (which will go into effect on October 7), the show would have averaged 1,496,000 viewers and 0.47 in the 18-49 demo, which translates to a 4.6% gain in the viewership average and a 4.4% increase in the demo rating.

The viewership figure was Raw’s second lowest of the year behind the January 15 episode this year, which aired against the NFL Wild Card game, which drew over 29 million viewers.

The Monday Night Football opener aired across ABC, ESPN, ESPN+, and ESPN Deportes along with ESPN2’s coverage with Peyton & Eli (“The ManningCast”). The Eagles vs. 49ers game garnered 20.5 million viewers across the four television platforms, led by ABC’s audience of 11,028,000 viewers (2.15 rating in the 18-49 demo) and 8,534,000 (3.06) on ESPN. (Courtesy: Programming Insider)

Raw topped everything except the NFL on cable for the night and beat ESPN2’s coverage of the game, which posted a 0.31 rating in the 18-49 demo for Peyton & Eli.

Raw opened with 1,545,000 viewers and a 0.48 in the 18-49 demographic for the commercial-free hour. It was still the third-lowest opening hour of the year for the program.

It fell to 1,447,000 and 0.46 in the second hour and 1,299,000 and 0.41 in the final hour. The third hour of Raw would be among the lowest viewed hours for a first-run edition of Raw in its history on the USA Network.

Last year’s episode of Raw against the Monday Night Football premiere saw WWE average 1,390,000 viewers and 0.40 in the demo against a game, which attracted 22,645,000 viewers across ABC & ESPN’s television platforms.

WWE Raw continued its strong run in Canada with 329,800 viewers and 137,000 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. Those figures are up by 9% in viewership and 36% in the demo from the prior week. The show has topped 300,000 viewers in five of the past six weeks with Raw ranking #3 among sports on Monday and #2 in the demo behind the Monday Night Football game but topping the Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Mets in the demo audience.