WWE Raw Viewership Drops Due To Competition With College American Football National Championship Game

On this week's episode of Monday Night Raw, Brock Lesnar laughed on WWE TV for the first time ever, Drew McIntyre cemented his status as one of WWE's top stars by defeating Randy Orton and AJ Styles in a Triple Threat match, and Buddy Murphy joined Seth Rollins' new faction as The Monday Night Messiah sets out to save WWE's flagship show.

The January 13 episode was also widely praised within the wrestling world. Despite this,

in the wake of stiff competition from the College Football Playoff National Championship game between the LSU Tigers and Clemson Tigers. Fans were evidently more interested in watching Joe Burrow throw for 463 yards and five touchdowns on his way to leading LSU to a 42-25 victory, as 25 million tuned in to watch the game.

Raw also suffered from its usual drop-offs as the show progressed. While 2.21 million watched the opening Triple Threat match, viewership dropped by 18 percent to 1.81 million by the start of the third hour.

WWE's flagship show also continues to struggle in the key 18-49 demographic as Raw averaged a 0.61 rating. Over 50's made up the bulk of the audience yet again, as the episode averaged a 0.97 rating in that demographic.