For the second straight week, WWE RAW's television viewership decreased as compared to the previous week's show. As the company heads into the homestretch in their build toward WrestleMania 32, this is the opposite of what typically happens during WrestleMania season. Rather than building interest in the show, the television ratings show people tuning out of WWE's weekly flagship show. This week's edition of WWE RAW on March 7 averaged 3.551 viewers. By comparison, last week's show averaged 3.724 million viewers. Two weeks ago, RAW brought in 3.884 million viewers on February 22 when Shane McMahon made his return to television after a six year absence. The hourly breakdown shows that this week's episode, as usual, steadily lost viewers as the broadcast progressed:
First Hour: 3.760 million viewers (3.961 million viewers last week) Second Hour: 3.614 million viewers (3.660 million viewers last week) Third Hour: 3.279 million viewers (3.551 million viewers last week)
RAW didn't benefit much from the return of Shane McMahon to the show this week, and viewers tuned out during each subsequent hour of the broadcast despite the show being relatively well received among wrestling critics and fans. RAW did finish Monday night as the most watched show on cable television, and it was also first in the valuable 18-49 age group demographic.
