Raw’s ratings continued to no-sell the Olympics bumping it to SyFy

Despite some historic lows, we were impressed with Raw’s Feb. 7 performance metrics. The show was bumped to SyFy due to USA’s coverage of the Winter Olympics, but the numbers didn’t crater completely.

The circumstances were the same on Feb. 14. The results were even better.

What the Valentine’s Day Raw delivered on SyFy against the Games looked a lot like what the show was doing on USA without Olympic competition. Viewership rebounded to an hourly average of 1.602 million viewers, a more than 15% jump from the Monday before. The .44 rating among 18-49 year olds was a 22% week-to-week improvement.

There was a big third hour drop-off. But given it was a front-loaded show (Brock Lesnar appeared in the commercial-free first hour), and even the 10pm ET block was way out in front of the next highest rated cable original, that’s probably not too big a cause for concern.

Here’s the hourly breakdown:

Hour One: 1.709 million / .47
Hour Two: 1.694 million / .46
Hour Three: 1.402 million / .39

Part of this can be attributed to more of the audience knowing Raw was on SyFy this week. The lackluster Olympics numbers (less than 9 million people watched NBC & USA’s primetime coverage, which scored a combined 1.68 in the demo) help, too. WWE is used to tough Monday night competition from the NFL, and the Beijing Games are proving to be no NFL.

Back to USA next week with Elimination Chamber fallout, and the push to WrestleMania begins in earnest.

For complete results and this week’s Raw live blog click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For video highlights of the show click here.

Numbers via Showbuzz Daily