Monday’s WWE RAW episode drew an average of 1.716 million viewers on the USA Network, according to Showbuzz Daily. This is up 7.79% from last week’s 1.592 million viewers for the final RAW of 2021.
For this week’s show, the first hour drew 1.807 million viewers, the second hour drew 1.716 million viewers and the final hour drew 1.627 million viewers.
The first RAW of 2022 drew a 0.45 rating in the 18-49 key demographic. This is up 9.75% from last week.
Monday’s RAW had several matches and segments advertised ahead of time – fallout from Day 1, new WWE Champion Brock Lesnar opening the show, The Miz and Maryse addressing WWE Hall of Famers Edge and Beth Phoenix, AJ Styles vs. Omos, WWE United States Champion Damian Priest defending against Dolph Ziggler, plus the main event, which was Bobby Lashley vs. Big E vs. Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins to determine Lesnar’s challenger for the Royal Rumble.
As for the New Year’s Evil edition of NXT, the show scored a solid increase in its viewership on January 4.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics reports that 685,000 viewers watched the special “New Year’s Evil” edition of the show, which marked a new high for the program since the “Halloween Havoc” episode on October 26. Comparatively, 662,000 viewers watched the show on December 28.
In the 18 to 49 demographic, NXT scored a 0.16 rating (206,000 viewers). This rating is the same as the previous week, though the demographic viewership is lower.
NXT New Year’s Evil featured several buzzworthy bouts; in the main event, Bron Breakker challenged Tommasso Ciampa for the NXT Championship. Former WWE Champion AJ Styles was also advertised to appear on the show; he confronted Grayson Waller. Plus, WWE RAW Tag Team Champion Riddle teamed up with MSK to face Imperium.
