Viewers chose playoff basketball over a wrestling wedding

Raw became the latest loser in the ongoing pro wrestling vs. playoff basketball fight on Mon., April 18.

This week, WWE’s red show had an average audience of 1.65 million viewers, and .47 rating with 18-49 year olds. That’s 8% less total viewers than the week before, and a 13% drop in the demo. The rating was as low as it’s been since early March, and viewership since the NFL season ended back in January.

As has been the case since the NBA started their post-season last week, the declines can be attributed to hoops. Especially noteworthy is the big third hour drop, which went head-to-head with the game which topped the cable originals on Monday — Steph Curry & Golden State vs. Denver & reigning league MVP (most valuable player, not to be confused with Montell Vontavious Porter) Nikola Jokić.

Here’s the hourly break down for total viewers and 18-49:

Hour One: 1.80 million / .50
Hour Two: 1.69 million / .48
Hour Three: 1.46 million / .44

Raw finished third behind the two games on TNT it went head-to-head with: Golden State/Denver and the 7:30pm starting Philadelphia/Toronto contest. Next week doesn’t figure to get any easier, as WWE will at least have to compete with a Boston vs. Brooklyn match-up that figures to generate a lot of interest.

For complete results and this week’s Raw live blog click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For video highlights of the show click here.

Numbers via Showbuzz Daily