wrestling / News
A Look at How Raw, Smackdown and Impact Performed in the Ratings in 2018
Image Credit: WWE
All three networks that air wrestling programs — USA Network, Pop TV, and El Rey — were among those losing viewers in 2018. Yahoo! has a year-end report looking at the performance of television networks in 2018 compared to their audiences in 2017. The three networks, as well as BeIN Sports, were all down year-to-year in total viewers during primetime.
According to the site, USA Network averaged 1.518 million primetime viewers in 2018, down 9% from its 2017 count of 1.661 million. Pop TV, the home of Impact, was down 10% from 175,000 viewers to 157,000. El Rey Network, which airs Lucha Underground, was off 9% from 54,000 viewers in 2017 to 49,000. And finally, BeIN, which airs MLW: Fusion, was down 50% from 14,000 to 7,000.
There are, it must be said, a lot of caveats to be held about this news. First off, total viewers isn’t a metric that weighs heavily on a show’s survival. Instead, the 18 – 49 demographic rating generally holds sway. Second, these are performances from the overall network and not the specific wrestling show numbers.
When we dig down into the actual show numbers (not reflected in the Yahoo! article), we get a bit more relevant. You can see those changes below:
Raw
2018 Audience: 2.823 million viewers (down 7% from 2017’s 3.02 million)
2018 Demo Rating: 0.96 (down 7% from 2017’s 1.04)
Smackdown
2018 Audience: 2.35 million viewers (down 8% from 2017’s 2.456 million)
2018 Demo Rating: 0.75 (down 8% from 2017’s 0.81)
Impact Wrestling
2018 Audience: 250,000 viewers (down 12% from 2017’s 283,000)
2018 Demo Rating: 0.062 (down 3% from 2017’s 0.064)
Numbers are not available for MLW: Fusion or Lucha Underground due to a lack of consistent weekly numbers for those shows.
The above networks are not alone by any stretch in terms of viewership loss. As streaming, time-shifted (DVR) viewing and other options become more popular, networks are overall losing viewers. 100 out of the top 130 networks lost viewers from year to year, as Yahoo! notes.
