“Monday Night Raw” Viewership Takes Hit for March 2 Episode

On March 2, WWE aired the second edition of “Monday Night Raw” following its inaugural “Fastlane” pay-per-view on Sunday, Feb. 22. Despite WWE officially underway on its Road to WrestleMania, viewership for “Monday Night Raw” suffered a drop for the March 2 showing of the program.

According to TVByTheNumbers.com, the March 2 showing of “Monday Night Raw” averaged 3.825 million viewers, noticeably down from last week’s figure of 4.122 million viewers. Its viewership would peak during the second hour, which closed with an appearance by Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show.”

Below is the hourly viewership breakdown for the March 2 episode of “Monday Night Raw:”

Hour 1: 3.545 million viewers

Hour 2: 4.066 million viewers

Hour 3: 3.864 million viewers

“Monday Night Raw” was the most-watched cable program on March 2, but would not be the highest-rated. It obtained a 1.3 rating for adults aged 18-49, finishing second on the night. Ahead of WWE was VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop” series, which obtained a rating of 1.4 for the key demographic.

With just three more showings of WWE’s flagship program, “Monday Night Raw,” left before WrestleMania 31, the company will be looking to pull out all the stops in preparation for its biggest event of the year. Next week, when “Raw” emanates from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, rapper Wiz Khalifa will make a special guest appearance.  Additionally, for the “go-home” show of “Raw” on March 23, sports columnist Bill Simmons and rapper Snoop Dogg are rumored to appear.

Editor’s Note

For the Road to WrestleMania, these numbers are shockingly bad. While “Raw” was very good on March 2, it still lacked the star power to obtain WWE’s usual viewership for WrestleMania time. If/when Sting, Brock Lesnar, and The Undertaker show up on WWE programming, expect the viewership numbers to shoot up towards five million.