By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor
Last night's episode of WWE Raw starring John Cena delivered identical TV ratings as the previous week's show. Looking at TV viewers, Raw built a nice second hour audience of nearly 6.0 million viewers on average finishing off the hype for Summerslam.

Looking back at past editions of Raw leading to the annual Summerslam PPV, the August 11, 2008 Raw six days before Summerslam averaged a 3.1 rating and 4.67 million viewers. This year's Summerslam lead-in show was up nearly one million viewers compared to last year.

Going back to 2007, the Summerslam lead-in show on August 20, 2007 averaged a 3.7 rating and 5.25 million viewers. The August 13, 2007 Raw actually averaged a 3.8 rating and 5.30 million viewers, which was close to this year's Raw lead-in show.

Looking at last night's Raw compared to recent 2009 numbers, the show was up 3.4 percent compared to the previous five weeks. The show was down compared to Shaq on July 27, but up compared to ZZ Top and Seth Green.

Compared to the previous ten weeks of TV, last night's Raw was down 1.2 percent thanks to the three weeks in June where average viewership was over 6.0 million. Compared to the average viewership for the previous shows in 2009, Raw from last night was ahead of the curve by 2.8 percent.

Raw Ratings Breakdown
8/17 - 5.53 million viewers (Freddy Prinze, Jr.)

LAST FIVE WEEKS OF RAW
8/10 - 5.49 million viewers (Sgt. Slaughter)
8/3 - 5.10 million viewers (Piven & Dr. Ken)
7/27 - 5.76 million viewers (Shaq)
7/20 - 5.16 million viewers (ZZ Top)
7/13 - 5.23 million viewers (Seth Green)
AVERAGE: 5.35 million viewers (8/17 Raw up 3.4 percent)

W/LAST TEN WEEKS OF RAW
7/6 - 5.15 million viewers (Ted DiBiase)
6/29 - 5.96 million viewers (Batista)
6/22 - 6.80 million viewers (commercial-free)
6/15 - 5.91 million viewers (comparable final two hours of three-hour show)
6/8 - 5.40 million viewers
COMBINED AVERAGE: 5.59 million viewers (8/17 Raw down 1.2 percent)

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