As expected, with all the news breaking regarding Vince McMahon's ouster and Paul "Triple H" Levesque being put in charge of creative, Raw's ratings were up significantly last night, averaging 1.90 million viewers and drawing a 0.50 rating in 18-49.
Raw was first on cable and beat all but one network show, including Spanish-language programming, in 18-49. The Bachelorette on ABC at 0.74 in 18-49 was the only show that beat Raw last night.
Raw's 0.33 rating in the 18-34 demo was third on television behind The Bachelorette and one show on Univision.
On cable, Raw swept the key demos except one, winning with women 18-49, men 18-49, 18-34 overall, and men 12-34, and tied in women 12-34 with Air Jaws Top Gun on Discovery.
Raw was up eight percent in viewers from last week, up nine percent in 18-49, and up three percent in 18-34.
The key items on the show were Roman Reigns appearing for both an early interview and later match, and the Rey Mysterio 20th anniversary celebration. The episode was Raw's go-home show for SummerSlam.
From last year, Raw was up five percent in viewers, up two percent in 18-49, and up six percent in 18-34. When you figure in the drop in cable homes, the actual percentage increases were 11 percent in viewers, eight percent in 18-49, and 11 percent in 18-34.
There was a major third hour drop of 15 percent in viewers from hour one, which hasn't been the case often of late. That's with Reigns & The Usos vs. Riddle & The Street Profits as the main event. The big drop was 21 percent in women 18-49, plus eight percent in men 18-49, 13 percent in women 12-34, while men 12-34 stayed even.
There were two episodes of Miz & Mrs airing after Raw. The first episode ranked 18th for the night and second in its time slot behind Mega Predators of Oz on Discovery, averaging 540,000 viewers and drawing a 0.16 rating in 18-49. The second episode, the final of the season, was 28th for the night and also second in the time slot, doing 389,000 viewers and a 0.12 rating. The first episode in the same time slot as last week was down five percent in viewers and down nine percent in 18-49.
The three hours of Raw were:
- 8 p.m. 2.02 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.97 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.71 million viewers
The show took place at Madison Square Garden and was the final Raw before SummerSlam.
www.f4wonline.com
