Raw Ratings Report: Viewership for last week’s episode including Festival of Friendship, first-to-third hour dropoff, year-to-year perspective (w/Keller’s Analysis)

Last night’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw on USA Network drew a 2.16 rating, below last week’s 2.20 and slightly below the 2017 average so far (2.20) and slightly above the ten week rolling average headed into this week (2.13).

With a third hour featuring the Festival of Friendship with the major Kevin Owens-Chris Jericho segment and Charlotte defending against Bayley in the main event, the dropoff from the first to the third hour was 290,000, in line with the 288,000 average the last 15 weeks. Viewership began at 3.20 million, held pretty steady at 3.15 million in the second hour, and then dipped to 2.91 million in the third hour.

The rating one year ago this week was 2.48. The average this far into 2016 was 2.54, compared to 2.20 this year.

Keller’s Analysis: Maybe a bit of a disappointment that the Raw Women’s Title match and a long but distinctively different Festival of Friendship wasn’t enough to hold the audience in the third hour better than average this year. The overall rating is just a basic expected rating for 2017. It was widely considered a hot and memorable edition of Raw, but one that snuck up on viewers who may have expected this to be a more typical week for Raw. The effect of the energy created from the angles on this week’s show may show up with a better than expected rating next week.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S RAW RATINGS REPORT: Raw Rating: Viewership for last night’s episode, first-to-third hour dropoff, year-to-year perspective (w/Keller’s Analysis)