Raw Rating: Post-WrestleMania episode tops 3 million viewers in hour one, but off 25 percent from last year’s post-WM edition, key metrics and perspective

Last night’s episode (4/8) of WWE Monday Night Raw on USA Network drew a 2.02 rating, up from the 1.80 rating fo the prior two weeks. It’s the first rating above 2.00 since the post-Royal Rumble episode drew a 2.05 rating on Jan. 25. The rating this week is a sharp 25 percent drop-off from the year-ago post-Mania rating of 2.72 and the two-years-ago post-Mania rating of 2.62.

The first hour drew more than three million viewers for the first time since March 4 and the fourth time this year. Raw drew 3.182 million viewers in the first hour, then 2.943 million in the second hour, and 2.646 in the third hour. That’s a drop-off of 536,000 from the first to third hour, higher than the 2019 average so far 408,000.

Raw is averaging a 1.87 rating this year, compared to 2.29 through this week in 2018 and 2.29 in 2017 through this week.

Raw’s final two hours went up against the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game on CBS which drew 16.24 million viewers.

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To listen to the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show podcast featuring cohost Travis Bryan of the PWTorch East Coast Cast, live callers, a mailbag, and a conversation with an on-site correspondent who attended WrestleMania and Raw with details on crowd reactions and what happened before and after Raw went on the air and during commercial breaks, CLICK HERE.