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WWE is in a special position where it features three weekly shows on television during primetime hours. In total, World Wrestling Entertainment has seven hours of prime-time TV in the United States throughout the week on two top networks.
Monday Night RAW airs on the USA Network from 8 PM to 11 PM every week. NXT also airs on the USA Network, but from 8 PM to 10 PM on Tuesdays. The week closes with a bang when Friday Night SmackDown airs on FOX from 8 PM to 10 PM EST.
Each brand has its own unique roster, though plenty of stars cross over from show to show. They also have unique champions and graphics, along with special color schemes to identify each show. All three brands are successful in their own way, although the viewership between them is typically quite varied.
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This article will look into the viewership of RAW, SmackDown, and NXT over the past week. It will also compare the viewership of each show to that of last year's ratings to see how each brand is growing or dwindling over time.
Below is a rundown of WWE's television ratings this past week.
#3. Monday Night RAW on October 17th, 2022
The October 17th edition of Monday Night RAW pulled in an impressive 1.803 million viewers, according to Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics. This number was down slightly from the week before's 1.824 million viewers. Monday's show also had a 0.50 rating in the prized 18-49 key demo.
While the number dropped slightly from the week prior, it is up significantly year-over-year. The October 18th, 2021 RAW episode brought in 1,593,000 viewers, meaning the latest episode was up over 200,000 viewers from the previous year.
Monday's episode of WWE RAW featured several big matches and moments. The Good Brothers made their in-ring return against Alpha Academy. Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar also had a chaotic brawl on the show. Additionally, Mustafa Ali was on the receiving end of a refreshing push as Seth Rollins defended the United States Championship. Baron Corbin made his major return to WWE programming on the same night.
#2. NXT on October 16th, 2022
The October 16th edition of NXT brought in 676,000 viewers and a 0.18 rating in the 18-49 year old key demo. These numbers come courtesy of Brandon Thurston and WrestleNomics.
NXT had a wrestling competition this week as All Elite Wrestling's Dynamite program aired on Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday air-date. The new one-night only timeslot was due to a postseason baseball game. Ultimately, AEW came out on top with 752,000 viewers.
You can see the Tweet revealing the ratings below:
While the developmental brand didn't quite match AEW's numbers, they did do better year-over-year. The October 19th, 2021 edition of NXT had 606,000 viewers, meaning around 70,000 more people tuned in this year.
Multiple main roster stars appeared on this past week's edition of the developmental brand. The stars included Shinsuke Nakamura, Judgment Day, Raquel Rodriguez, Kevin Owens, and the recently returned pair of Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson. The show also featured build towards Halloween Havoc.
#1. WWE SmackDown on October 21st, 2022
The October 21st edition of WWE SmackDown brought in a preliminary viewership of 2,163,000 according to spoilertv.com. The prelim numbers are the only ones available until Monday at the earliest.
Overnight numbers are almost always lower than the final numbers that come in the following week, with sports-related promotion being the rare exception to the rule. As a result, SmackDown's final numbers will likely be higher. You can check out Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics offer his projection for the final viewership number below.
Brandon Thurston believes the final viewership will be around 2,300,000. If that number ends up being correct, it will be an increase from last week's 2,274,000 viewers. The October 22nd, 2021 SmackDown had an overnight viewership number of 2.101 million, showing a significant increase year-over-year.
This episode of WWE SmackDown featured Logan Paul returning to the show, though he was ultimately jumped by Jey Uso. Plus, Rey Mysterio took on Ludwig Kaiser, the WWE Women's Tag Team Titles were on the line and Braun Strowman had a face-to-face meeting with the giant Omos.
The verdict: which show won the viewership battle for the week?
The final verdict is that WWE SmackDown ultimately had the most viewers by a considerable margin. Still, provided the final numbers for the blue brand increase as expected, each show is up year-over-year. Increased fan interest is clearly a positive sign for World Wrestling Entertainment under Triple H's creative leadership.
Ex WWE writer blasts Liv Morgan HERE
