The day after Survivor Series bump and an appearance by Vince McMahon, even in a lame storyline, led Raw to a ratings increase for last night's episode.
The show averaged 1.70 million viewers and drew a 0.49 rating in 18-49.
The strength of the show was with teenage and 18-34 viewers. It was up seven percent in viewers, 18 percent in 18-49, and 23 percent in 18-34 over last week's numbers that were among the bottom seven historically.
Raw placed sixth in 18-49, behind five NFL-related shows on ESPN, including the New York Giants vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game that aired on both ESPN and ESPN2, drawing 11.92 million viewers and a 3.47 in 18-49 and a 2.40 in 18-34. The NFL numbers were down three percent from last week in viewers and down five percent in 18-49.
However, the news was strong as Tucker Carlson (5.05 million viewers; 0.48) came close to Raw in 18-49 in the first hour (Raw did a 0.50), and Hannity (3.28 million viewers; 0.30) went against Raw's second hour, which did a 0.51. All three hours were in third place for the night behind ESPN and ESPN2, both airing football.
Raw was sixth in women 18-49, seventh in men 18-49 (behind only NFL-related programming), seventh in 18-49 (behind only NFL-related programming), tied for fourth in women 12-34, and seventh in men 12-34.
The 14 percent first-to-third hour drop sounds high, but much of the drop was with people over 50. With women 18-49, the drop was only two percent, with men 18-49 it was 10 percent, for women 12-17 it was a 27 percent gain from the start until the end which is highly unusual, and for teenage boys it was a 14 percent gain.
So there was something on the show in hour three that appealed more strongly to teenagers and held women at better than usual levels as well. The advertised WWE Championship main event of Big E vs. Austin Theory was the only thing plugged hard in hour two to keep the audience, so it may have been the fact the title was at stake in the main event segment. There was a 13 percent drop in over 50.
Raw was 22nd among total viewers on cable, trailing four NFL-related shows on ESPN and 17 news shows.
However, Raw was down in comparison to last year's post-Survivor Series episode. It was down six percent in viewers and down 14 percent in 18-49, but it was even in 18-34.
Ratings for Dancing with the Stars were also well up from recent weeks.
Raw's viewership by hour was:
8 p.m. 1.81 million viewers
9 p.m. 1.73 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.56 million viewers
and he became one of my go to guys to push all the time. My ROH file will forever be the peak for me.
