Royal Rumble rerun on ESPN, Austin doc on CW: TV ratings and network comparisons

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Royal Rumble on ESPN

The re-airing of WWE Royal Rumble on ESPN’s flagship traditional network on Sunday night (Feb. 22), starting at 8:25 pm, averaged 417,000 viewers and a 0.09 P18-49 rating, as reported by Programming Insider. It was the first re-airing of a major WWE event on ESPN since the beginning the media deal with the network to air PLEs. The Rumble originally aired live on January 31 on ESPN’s streaming app.

For comparison, here’s how the last several Sunday nights on ESPN performed, according to a combination of SpoilerTV and Programming Insider:

  • Feb 15:
    • College Softball (Texas Tech vs. Nebraska) at 6:00 pm – 383,000 viewers; 0.10 P18-49 rating
    • 30 for 30 (A Portrait of Stuart Scott) at 8:00 pm – 217,000; 0.06
    • 30 for 30 (The Philly Special) at 9:30 pm – 236,000; 0.05
  • Feb 8:
    • X Games at 7:00 pm – 140,000 viewers; 0.02 P18-49 rating
    • AKC Premier Cup at 8:00 pm – 137,000; 0.02
    • SportsCenter at 10:25 pm – 191,000; 0.03
    • NFL Primetime at 10:46 pm – 756,000; 0.20
  • Feb 1:
    • NHL Stadium Series (Bruins vs. Lightning) at 6:40 pm- 2,072,000 viewers; 0.54 P18-49 rating
  • Jan 25:
    • X Games at 6:40 pm – 129,000 viewers; 0.05 P18-49 rating
    • SportsCenter at 9:34 pm – 149,000; 0.04
    • NFL Primetime at 10:06 pm – 699,000; 0.17
  • Jan 18:
    • College basketball (Arizona St vs. Houston) at 6:29 pm – 924,000 viewers; 0.27 P18-49 rating
    • Path to the College Football Playoff at 8:32 pm – 204,000; 0.06
    • SportsCenter at 10:05 pm – 713,000; 0.18

Steve Austin “WWE Legends” airing on CW

On Saturday night on CW, the network aired WWE Legends: Steve Austin, starting at 8:11 pm. It averaged 385,000 viewers and a 0.07, according to Programming Insider. The documentary originally aired A&E. The telecast was head-to-head with Collision on TNT, which averaged 470,000 viewers and a 0.08 P18-49 rating, as reported earlier.

Excluding NASCAR and college football, the Saturday night time slot over the last several weeks delivered between 0.01 and 0.05 in P18-49 and between 155,000 and 508,000 viewers total (for telecasts including Scrabble, I Am Richard Pryor, I Am Burt Reynolds, TV We Love, and Recipe for Romance), according to data from SpoilerTV.

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