May 5 "Monday Night Raw" Viewership Down from Last Week

On Monday, May 5, the first “Monday Night Raw” after the 2014 edition of the “Extreme Rules” event occurred. Although the show was a transition point for the company’s upcoming programming, viewership was down from last week. The May 5 edition of the program averaged 4,276,000 viewers, according to TVByTheNumbers.com. This is down from the “Extreme Rules” go-home show’s 4,61,000 average viewers. In addition to receiving competition from the NHL and NBA playoffs once again, NBC and FOX aired episodes of “The Voice” and “24” respectively, meaning WWE had its work cut out.

Similar to last week, the hour breakdowns of viewership did not follow their usual trend. In fact, viewership increased for both the second and third hours. The first hour of “Monday Night Raw” brought in an average of 3,963,000 viewers. The second hour then made a significant jump to 4,414,000 viewers. Then, for the third and final hour, viewership increased ever-so-slightly to 4,451,000.

In terms of cable programming, WWE was topped in both ratings and viewership by the NBA playoffs and VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta.” At its peak, WWE’s ratings for adults aged 18-49 was 1.5, down from last week’s number of 1.9

Editor’s Note

The decrease in viewership may not necessarily be a bad sign for the company, as it faced stiff competition. If anything, WWE should be impressed that viewership has not peaked during the first hour for two straight weeks.