Raw had its second straight huge number with an episode built around John Cena's 20th anniversary, which led to the show's best 18-34 numbers in recent memory.
The episode averaged 1.95 million viewers overall, drew a 0.54 rating in the 18-49 demo, and drew a 0.40 in 18-34.
Raw was down two percent from last week, a show boosted by the Vince McMahon publicity, down one percent in 18-49, and up 18 percent in 18-34, which has to be attributed to Cena's return. There was really nothing else on the show that would lead to a rating that big for this week.
Raw was helped by no Below Deck, its biggest competition on cable, and with the NBA and NHL playoffs over, there was no sports competition.
Raw did more than double the closest competition on cable in 18-49 overall and men 18-49, did more than triple anything on cable in 18-34, and more than triple everything in men 12-34. Raw won every key demo on cable, and beat every network show in 18-49 with a Celebrity Family Feud episode on ABC doing a 0.50, and that's with the huge network advantage. In 18-34, Raw was the second-largest number on all of television behind only Mi Fortuna es Amarte on Univision at 0.42.
In total viewers, Raw was ninth for the night on cable behind eight news shows.
The power of Raw was so strong that Miz & Mrs at 11 p.m. was sixth on cable with 669,000 viewers and a 0.21 rating in 18-49, winning its time slot.
As compared to one year ago, a show that went against the NBA playoffs and did a very low number, Raw was up 24 percent in viewers, up 32 percent in 18-49, and up 33 percent in 18-34. When you factor in the homes lost by cable, the real percentage gains based on homes USA Network is in would be 32 percent in viewers, 39 percent in 18-49, and 42 percent in 18-34.
Miz & Mrs was up 14 percent in viewers and five percent in 18-49 from last week.
Raw's three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 2.01 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 2.02 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.83 million viewers