Raw last night did its lowest numbers since the end of football season and had an unusual ratings pattern with a very low first hour.
With a second hour pick-up, the viewership ended up at 1.81 million viewers over the three hours with a 0.47 rating in 18-49.
The second hour gain was the key to the show, and a second hour beating the first hour by as much as it did is unusual at any time, but particularly outside of daylight saving time.
Raw was first on cable, with the Miami vs. North Carolina college basketball game on ESPN in second place at 1.02 million/0.31 and Below Deck at 1.09 million/0.30.
Raw also beat ABC in hour three, beat CBS after 8:30 p.m., beat NBC after 9 p.m.. and beat Fox all night. Among all stations on television last night in prime time, USA was second to only ABC by a 0.49 to 0.47 mark, and a network show has an advantage of being in about 49 percent more homes. In 18-34, Raw beat every show but The Bachelor last night on English-language television and was also behind two Spanish-language shows.
Raw was second in women 18-49 on cable, first in men 18-49, first in people 18-34, third in women 12-34 (behind Below Deck and Summer House), and first in men 12-34. In total viewers, Raw was 14th behind only news shows.
Raw was down four percent in viewers, down 15 percent in 18-49, and down 24 percent in 18-34.
From one year ago, it really isn't a fair comparison since Raw was on Syfy and it went against the Olympics. But from that episode Raw was up 13 percent in viewers, up six percent in 18-49, and down 10 percent in 18-34.
Raw was down in every age group but one in more than double digits, but the overall number stayed close due to the increase with people over 50.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 1.82 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.92 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.70 million viewers
