Post-Superstar Shake-up edition of WWE Raw draws lowest rating in 15 weeks, key metrics compared to recent weeks and past years

Last night’s (Apr. 23) episode of WWE Monday Night Raw on USA Network drew a 2.09 rating, the lowest since January 8 (which was the final show of a seven week stretch of sub-2.0 ratings). It’s a sharp drop from last week’s 2.47 rating and the 2.72 rating two weeks earlier for the “Day After WrestleMania” episode.

The ten-week rolling average headed into this week was 2.29.

One year ago Raw drew a 2.04 rating, which was a dropoff from the 2.26, 2.35, and 2.62 ratings of the prior three weeks, so it’s not abnormal for a dropoff at this time. The rating two years ago this week was 2.20. Raw this year is typically drawing slightly better ratings than last year and significantly lower ratings than two years ago.

The first hour viewership was 3.28 million, down from 3.63 million last week, and the lowest since Feb. 12. It held pretty steady with 3.21 million in the second hour, but then dropped sharply for the third hour to a 2.82 million viewership level. The advertised main event, although not pushed heavily throughout the first two hours, was a ten-women tag team match. WWE didn’t begin to set up the match until deep into the program.

The third hour began with Braun Strowman & Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, then featured Baron Corbin and No Way Jose in an angle, Finn Balor & Seth Rollins vs. The Miztourage, and the ten-woman tag match.

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