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PWTorch editor Wade Keller presents a special Thursday Flagship edition of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast featuring a WrestleMania 36 Preview with ex-WWE Creative Team member and professional stand-up comedian Matt McCarthy.
(Search “wade keller” to subscribe in podcast app or CLICK HERE to subscribe in Apple Podcasts.)
By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor
WWE Draft Week was about as even as it gets in terms of viewing audiences for the July 18 Raw and the July 19 live Smackdown/WWE Draft back-to-back nights on USA Network.
Raw scored a 2.22 TV rating to Smackdown’s 2.20 rating. However, the Draft/Smackdown drew more viewers and held off Raw when accounting for DVR viewership.
The Draft/Smackdown total viewing audience was 3.416 million viewers (live + DVR), compared to Raw’s total audience of 3.401 million viewers (average of all three hours + average DVR’ing per hour).
Raw was hurt by drawing the fewest DVR viewers of the year. Perhaps because of a second live show during the week the night after Raw, many viewers choose not to watch Raw after it aired.
Raw’s three hours averaged 268,333 DVR viewers, down 31 percent from the July 11 Raw’s DVR audience. It was the first time this year that Raw averaged fewer than 300,000 DVR viewers.
– Meanwhile, the Draft/Smackdown drew 246,000 DVR viewers, which was slightly above-average.
The final Thursday night airing on July 14 drew a huge number of 345,000 DVR viewers seemingly out of nowhere. Smackdown typically drew in the low 200k range Thursday nights on USA.
The first quarter average was 223,000 DVR viewers and the second quarter average was 210,000 DVR viewers.
– The DVR chart ranked Smackdown #1 on cable TV, followed by WWE Raw’s first hour #2, the second hour #3, and the third hour #5.
WWE Draft Week Viewership Comparison
Raw7/182.223,133,333
(avg. three hours)268,333
(avg. three hours)3,401,6672,3,5
SD/
Draft7/192.203,170,000246,0003,416,0001