Raw wins the night on cable with predictably bad Fourth of July numbers

Everyone knew it was going to be a bad ratings week for Raw. The show fell on July 4, and as Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reminded us this morning, last year’s Fourth of July episode (which actually fell on July 5) had the smallest audience in the show’s history.

It wasn’t that bad — although the 2021 show had stiffer competition, since the NBA and NHL Finals fell later on the calendar due to pandemic delayed seasons, and there was a hockey game that night. Across its three hours, this Monday’s edition averaged 1.56 million viewers and .37 rating in the 18-49 year old demographic.

Comparisons to last week’s John Cena-buoyed episode are pretty pointless. July 4’s was the smallest audience they’ve had since May, and lowest rating since last December. Yet WWE and USA executives will likely be celebrating the fact the show still handily won the night on cable, and was in the top five shows on all of television. Only NBC’s coverage of fireworks in New York City, and the ratings juggernaut that is Univision’s Mi Fortuna es Amarte were in front of it in the demo.

There was a steep drop after the 10pm ET, which would be once fireworks were going off across most of the nation. But Raw still swept the top three spots on cable. Here’s the hourly breakdown for total viewers and 18-49:

Hour One: 1.70 million / .40
Hour Two: 1.66 million / .41
Hour Three: 1.33 million / .31

They’ll try to get back to where they were next Monday as the build to SummerSlam continues.

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