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I chose to also focus on coverage ratings here because it provides the answer to the question people often ask: But what if you adjusted for cord-cutting (i.e., the availability of the network)? That is exactly what the coverage rating shows.
A look back at the long history of Raw’s television viewership seems timely as it moves off of traditional TV and solely on streaming to Netflix in the U.S.
Also, though, WWE has increased in fan popularity in recent years. The coverage rating allows us to compare Raw’s recent TV ratings to those of more distant years.
I have most of the actual data for this timeline but some of it, for all of 2024 and the first nine months of 1993, were estimated because the actual data isn’t available to me. I’m confident the 2024 data is quite accurate. The 1993 estimated data points are more approximate.
More notes on this data:
- Preemptions, “Best of” holiday episodes were excluded.
- Network availability among P18-49 was estimated for Jan 2024 to Dec 2024 (R^2=0.974) and divided by actual P18-49 viewership data to calculate P18-49 coverage ratings for that period.
- Viewership for Jan 1993 to Sep 1993 was estimated based on Oct-Dec 1993 actual household viewership data, viewers per household, and percentage of P18-49 viewers watching.
- All data from 1994 through 2023 is based on actual coverage ratings data.
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He operates and owns Wrestlenomics.