Raw Rating: Key metrics on what the viewership drop this week means in the big picture (w/Keller’s Analysis)

Monday night’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw on USA Network drew a 1.97 rating among live and same-night-DVR viewers, down from the 2.14 rating it drew the last two weeks bookending Survivor Series. That brings the monthly average down to 2.05, the best since August. The ten week rolling average headed into this week was 2.00.

Every hour of Raw drew under 3 million viewers, the first time that’s happened since Nov. 6. The dropoff from the first hour to the third hour was 355,000, which is more than the yearly average of 245,000, but better than the 450,000 plus the last two weeks.

One year ago, Raw drew a 2.21 rating. This is the first time since Oct. 16 that the year-ago Raw drew better than this year’s same-week rating.

Keller’s Analysis: This was an understandable drop because it’s not part of the build or immediate fallout of Survivor Series with the brand battle. The Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans NFL game was hardly stiff competition, although it was a close game, so that might have affected the viewership a bit. The absence of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman likely factored into the drop also. The third hour was built around Kane vs. Jason Jordan in the main event and started with Roman Reigns vs. Elias. The third hour rating dropoff was 100,000 less than the prior ten week average, so that’s a good sign for Reigns and in general the post-Survivor Series storylines even if the overall viewership was down. Holding the audience is an immediate indicator of how well WWE is doing with current storylines, whereas overall viewership (and initial first hour viewership) is more indicative of general interest in the product in recent weeks motivating people to tune in.