While WWE RAW moved into more respectable ratings territory, especially in the adults 18-49 demographic, it failed to parlay Vince McMahon’s return appearance into anything approximating a “good” number.
RAW delivered a 1.5 adults 18-49 rating with 4.11 million viewers. Up from last week’s sub-4 million disaster, that audience is nonetheless markedly below what WWE was averaging ahead of its RAW 1000 special (as well as in the first few weeks after).
From a trend perspective, WWE interestingly delivered its lowest 18-49 number in the 9PM slot; it drew a 1.4 in the middle portion, compared to a 1.5 for the bookends. From a viewership standpoint, it peaked in the 8PM hour (4.19) with its numbers holding essentially even (4.067, 4.065) for the latter two.
The higher viewership at the onset would reflect a slight, but still underwhelming, spike of interest in the Vince McMahon and John Cena returns.
The combination of football (5.7/14.05 million for Jets vs. Texans) and baseball (1.4/4.22 million) was daunting, but only slightly more so than last week’s more marquee NFL matchup between the Cowboys and Bears (6.8/16.62 million). While sports competition is surely to blame for part of the recent downturn, it should not have prevented the McMahon return from carrying more of an impact on this particular telecast.
