WWE Raw Viewership Hits All-Time Low for July 5 Episode
WWE's Monday Night Raw saw its audience drop to historic lows this week. According to [...]
WWE's Monday Night Raw saw its audience drop to historic lows this week. According to WrestleNomics' Brandon Thurston, the July 5, 2021 episode brought in an average 1.472 million viewers, dropping down from 1.57 million a week prior. That's the lowest viewership since the show premiered on the USA Network back in 1993. The show opened with a promo involving The Miz and the four Raw competitors in this year's Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match and ended with a main event where Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods defeated MVP and WWE Champion Bobby Lashley.
The episode also marked the last live episode of Raw to air inside of the WWE ThunderDome. The July 12 episode has reportedly already been taped, meaning the next time WWE airs a live episode of Raw it will be in front of a live crowd at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
WWE Raw on Monday on the USA Network was watched by 1,472,000 viewers, a new all-time low for the show that debuted in 1993.
18-49 viewership was almost the same as last week, slightly up, and the 3rd lowest on record.
Read my report and analysis here: https://t.co/WGqexoI62Q pic.twitter.com/dI9bt8rPJ2
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) July 7, 2021
The one asterisk, pointed out by Thurston, is that the Sept. 13, 1993 episode was reportedly viewed in just over one million households, but that doesn't necessarily mean it had a smaller viewership.
"It's been pointed out to me the Oct 1993 issue of Matwatch reported the Sept 13, 1993 episode of Raw was watched by 1.021 million households. If that episode had fewer than 1.45 viewers per home, it could have had fewer total viewers than Mon's episode."
WWE officials have stated in the past that they're expecting a ratings boost once shows are able to take place in front of live fans again. WWE began running shows inside of the empty Performance Center in March 2020, then over the summer transitioned to the ThunderDome where fans could attend virtually.
"... As it relates to live events that [the audience] always matters to us. Our fans are our fourth wall, if you will," WWE president Nick Khan said in an investors' conference call in April. "We know immediately from them what's working and what's not working. The ThunderDome was a phenomenal creation by the creative team here, but to get live fans and to get our performers in front of them, we yearn for that as much as our performers do. And we think it's going to have a direct impact on all parts of our business in an overwhelmingly positive way."
