Raw’s strategy for countering the NBA Playoffs seems to have worked

The WWE Draft didn’t bring a boost to Raw’s ratings last Monday, but likely did help stave off even bigger drops due to competition from the NBA & NHL Playoffs.

It was a strategy WWE was reportedly looking to emulate on May 8 with the start of the World Heavyweight Championship Tournament, among other things. Did it work?

Seems to have, yes. Last night’s show averaged 1.79 million viewers per hour, with a .51 rating among 18-49 year olds. That’s a less than 1% increase in overall audience from last week, and 5.5% down in the demo. It’s also better than Raw did against the same competition on the second week of May in 2022.

Raw finished fourth among cable originals, where its final hour went head-to-head with the ratings juggernaut that is LeBron James & the LA Lakers vs. Steph Curry & the Golden State Warriors. That game was tops on all of television with 7.5 million viewers and a 2.71 rating in 18-49. WWE also trailed the other game and TNT’s NBA studio show on cable, and ABC’s premiere of Jeopardy! Masters on broadcast

The 10pm ET hour took a bit of a beating against the start of LeBron & company’s win over the defending champs, but Raw again did well in keeping the under 34 demos watching. The 12-34 male rating dropped considerably from 9-10 (.44 to .36), but the equivalent female rating was unchanged during those two hours at .22, and the overall 18-34 rating only dipped a bit (.38 to .36).

Here are the total audience and 18-49 numbers for each hour...

Hour One: 1.78 million / .50
Hour Two: 1.91 million / .54
Hour Three: 1.67 million / .50

WWE may get a break next Monday, where only one NBA game is on the schedule — and that one (a Game 7 in the New York Knicks/Miami Heat series the Heat currently lead 3-1) probably won’t even happen.

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