Here are some additional notes on this week’s WWE RAW and SmackDown Live! ratings …
As predicted, the NBA Finals game took a major bite out of WWE’s Monday Night RAW ratings. Monday’s episode drew a 0.86 rating in the 18 – 49 demographic and 2.542 million viewers, down 17% and 15% from last week’s 1.04 demo rating and 2.994 million viewers. The numbers were roughly the same as two weeks ago, which was also hurt by the NBA Playoffs, when the show did a 0.86 and 2.613 million viewers. It should be noted that Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night drew the highest ratings since another Game 5 of the NBA Finals dating way back to 1998. Monday night’s game generated a 16.0 metered market rating. The ABC broadcast peaked with an 18.8 rating from 11:30-11:45 p.m. ET. The Game 5 rating was up 13 percent from Game 5 in both 2016 and 2015. Additionally, Monday night’s Game 5 was the most-streamed NBA Finals Game 5 ever and the second-most streamed NBA game ever. It generated an average minute streaming audience of 537,000 viewers, with 2,144,200 unique viewers and 92,377,200 total minutes streamed. The only NBA game to have generated a larger streaming audience was Game 7 in 2016.
WWE Monday Night RAW ranked #2 for the night among cable originals, behind VH-1’s Love & Hip-Hop Atlanta (1.27 demo rating, 2.608 million viewers). The hourly numbers were:
8 PM: 0.93 demo rating (2.769 million viewers)
9 PM: 0.84 demo rating (2.522 million viewers)
10 PM: 0.81 demo rating (2.335 million viewers)
— It was also not a good week for WWE SmackDown Live! in the ratings, where it sunk to its lowest point in 2017. Tuesday’s episode drew a 0.63 rating in the 18 – 49 demographic and 2.072 million viewers. The demo rating is the worst since the November 8th episode pulled in a 0.56 — and that was the same night as the presidential election. Otherwise, it was the lowest-rated episode of the SmackDown Live! era. Similarly, the viewership was the lowest since November 8th’s 1.921 million and otherwise the worst since 2.068 on the Thursday before the show went live on Tuesdays.
SmackDown Live! ranked #2 among cable originals for the night, behind the last hour of ESPN’s Celtics/Lakers doecumentary (0.67 demo rating, 1.532 million viewers).
