Monday Night Raw remains above the 2.0 rating mark second week in a row (w/Keller’s Analysis)

Last night’s Monday Night Raw episode on USA Network drew a 2.01 rating, staying above the 2.0 mark for the second week in a row. Last week drew a 2.17 rating. Raw had been below the 2.0 mark for the previous five weeks.

The downside of the rating is that even the first hour was below all three hours last week in viewership, and each hour dropped. So last week’s show drew 3.167 million viewers in the first hour compared to 2.983 million in the first hour this week.

This week, the viewership dropped to 2.806 million in the second hour and a 2.669 million in the third hour, so the promise of a Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman appearance and a main event featuring Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, and Seth Rollins failed to hold or improve upon the viewership of the second hour. Last week, though, was an exception to the long pattern of Raw drawing a lower third hour rating compared to the second.

So far, the average October rating is 2.01 compared to September’s average of 1.93.

Keller’s Analysis: This is probably right in line with expectations. Goldberg’s appearance drew a higher than average rating last week. The prior six weeks averaged a 1.93 rating, so the 2.17 rating last week was a big jump. The 2.01 rating for last night is still above the prior six week average. Next week’s Raw will take a hit from falling on Halloween night, but get a boost from being the day after Hell in a Cell. It goes up against a Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears match-up on Monday Night Football, which subjectively is a better than average MNF game between two divisional rivals featuring a 5-1 team in the Vikings. All things considered, I’ll predict a 1.96 rating next week. Check back to see how close I am.