Raw had its smallest audience since the end of the football season (UPDATED)

The Feb. 27 edition of Raw saw some noticeable drops from last week’s really good numbers. Last night actually had the show’s smallest audience since the end of the football season. But there are at least a couple reasons why WWE and USA probably aren’t sweating them too much.

First, the data. This week’s show was watched by an average of 1.77 million viewers across its three hours. That’s about 12% lower than the previous Monday. Among 18-49 year olds, Raw averaged a .51 rating, a roughly 9% week-to-week decline.

So why no worries? For one thing, these numbers are in the same ballpark as WWE’s “normal” Monday night episodes (meaning not tied to a PLE, or celebrating an anniversary) this year. Feb. 6 & 13, for instance, averaged 1.84 million viewers and a .51 in the demo. Two, Raw is still way up year-over-year. PWTorch’s Wade Keller had the show averaging .44 with viewers aged 18-49 through nine weeks of 2022. With last night, that figure is .53 at the same point in 2023.

And last but not least, next week won’t be a “normal” episode. John Cena and Logan Paul should drive up those yearly averages quite nicely.

Showbuzz’s report seems to be delayed, so we don’t have an hourly breakdown or the rankings yet. But we’ll update this post when those are out.

UPDATE: Per Showbuzz, Raw easily won the night on cable with its demo number, and tied for fourth overall. Here’s the hourly breakdown, which followed the usual pattern, although with one of the bigger 10pm ET drops we’ve seen of late.

Hour One: 1.89 million / .55
Hour Two: 1.75 million / .52
Hour Three: 1.67 million / .47

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.