There was a unique ratings pattern for Raw on Monday night.
The first hour averaged 1.68 million viewers and did a 0.43 rating in 18-49, which are, particularly in the demo, very weak numbers. Usually the show loses viewers as it goes on, but it gained notably in hour two, and while hour three fell, it was still ahead of hour one in 18-49, which almost never happens.
The end result was the show doing 1.68 million viewers and a 0.45 in 18-49.
It was down one percent from last week in viewers, down eight percent in 18-49, and down four percent in 18-34.
Last week's Raw was boosted by being the day after Survivor Series and this week didn't fall much. From looking at the strong second hour, it would appear the return of Edge was a driving force as well as Vince McMahon being back, the latter of which wasn't advertised and people wouldn't have expected that until hearing about it as the show went on. Another key is that the Monday Night Football game with Washington vs. Seattle did 10.89 million viewers, a drop from the last several weeks.
Raw was fifth in 18-49 behind the NFL game, second in its time slot behind ESPN, and 18th in total viewers, trailing only football and news shows.
The NFL game, which did a 3.08 in 18-49, was down nine percent in viewers and 11 percent in 18-49 from last week's number, which was also well below usual for this season.
Raw was sixth in women 18-49, fifth with men 18-49, fifth in 18-34, fifth in women 12-34, and sixth in men 12-34.
The key is that the first hour did unusually low with men 18-49 and teenage boys, and then grew. For women, the audience also grew in hour two, although not as much as with men.
The audience fell greatly from hour two to hour three, but the first to third hour drop of five percent was very low due to hour two gains. Even with the over 50 audience, the second hour did the same as the first hour before a third hour drop.
As compared to the same week last year, Raw was down four percent in viewers, down 13 percent in 18-49, and up two percent in 18-34.
Besides NFL-related shows and WWE, Below Deck at 1.21 million viewers and a 0.38 in 18-49 was the highest rated in the key demo.
Raw's three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 1.68 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.76 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.59 million viewers
