7/18 WWE Raw TV Ratings – Raw falls despite pre-Draft hype

By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE Raw got a strong social media bump on Monday night. But, the TV rating was down and viewership was flat compared to last week.

WWE Raw TV Ratings Tracking

July 18: The final WWE Raw before the Draft scored a 2.22 TV rating, down three percent from a 2.28 rating last week.

The overall rating was down, but key demographic ratings improved slightly from last week.

Included was males 18-34 rebounding to a five-week high point.

– Raw’s three hours averaged 3.133 million viewers, down one percent (about 37,000 viewers) from last week’s audience of 3.170 million viewers.

Raw started stronger than last week, matched last week’s second hour viewership, but fell off in the third hour. This was despite a WWE Title match, but Raw’s third hour was opposed by the peak of the Republican National Convention coverage, which drew more than 22 million viewers across all TV outlets.

• First Hour: 3.204 million viewers
• Second Hour: 3.236 million viewers
• Third Hour: 2.960 million viewers (-8.5%)

This continued Raw’s streak of 19 consecutive weeks where the third hour declined from the second hour.

Caldwell’s Analysis: Disappointing rating for a show with the GMs revealed, final Raw before the Draft, and WWE Title match in the main event. The effect of three-hour Raws continues to hurt the overall show now four years into the experiment. Will things change after the Draft? We’ll see. But, there does not appear to be ratings momentum heading into next week. WWE does benefit from having a PPV on Sunday leading into next Monday’s Raw to perhaps boost interest again, like the night after Money in the Bank when Dean Ambrose won the WWE Title.