Image: WWE
With the boost coming off Sunday’s TLC pay-per-view, Raw last night for perhaps the first time all year beat the numbers of the same week of the previous year in 18-49, and was up 29 percent from last week’s record low in the key demo.
Overall the show averaged 1.69 million viewers and did a 0.53 rating in 18-49, which is back to the normal range after the record low the week before. Last year’s show on the same Monday did one of the lowest numbers in history, and didn’t have the benefit of a post-PPV bump.
Raw finished fourth for the night on cable, trailing three NFL-related shows on ESPN. The Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game did 12.72 million viewers with a 3.38 in 18-49 and 2.33 in 18-34. Monday Night Football was up in total viewers from last week but lower in the key demos.
Raw was 20th overall for the night in viewership, trailing the three NFL-related shows and 16 news broadcasts.
The 17 percent first-to-third hour drop was above usual levels, but the declines were almost all over 50, and under-50 male viewers actually increased as the show went on, which for 18-49, is something that rarely happens.
What was notable from usual patterns is that men 18-49 actually gained from hour one to hour three by five percent, while women fell the usual 16 percent. Teenage boys gained 15 percent from hour one to hour three but over 50 dropped a whopping 26 percent and that’s the largest audience.
The show was up 11 percent from last week overall. As compared to the same week last year, the show was down eight percent in viewers, but up two percent in 18-49 and down three percent in 18-34, when usually year-to-year drops have been 20 percent in viewers and significantly higher in the key demos.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 1.84 million viewers
9 p.m. 1.70 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.53 million viewers