Raw Rating: Christmas night rating with John Cena effect on the first hour, 2017 vs. 2016 total average (w/Keller’s Analysis)

The Christmas night Raw earlier this week drew a 1.69 rating, which is well below the rolling ten week average headed into this week of 1.99 and below last week’s rating of 1.95.

The 2017 average rating for Raw was 2.07, below the 2016 average of 2.26, a drop of 8.4 percent.

The December average this year was 1.875, although it was 1.94 not counting the holiday edition this week. The average for December 2016 was 2.00.

The first hour featuring John Cena drew 2.948 million viewers, down from the 3.068 average the previous ten weeks. The third hour drew 2.543 million viewers, which was actually above the 2.470 million viewers from last week’s third hour. The dropoff from the first to third hour this week was 405,000. The average dropoff the previous ten weeks was 474,000.

Keller’s Analysis: It’s difficult to draw much from this week’s rating since Raw doesn’t usually air on Christmas evening. John Cena certainly helped the number, but what it would have been without him isn’t knowable. Raw drew 1.75 ratings on June 12 and May 29 earlier this year, the previous low points. Last year Raw landed on Halloween evening and dropped to a 1.88, down from the 2.11 the week before, a drop of 0.23. The dropoff this year from 1.95 to 1.69 equals 0.26, so similar. As for the yearly average comparisons, the second half of 2017 drew a 2.03 average compared to the second half of 2016 which drew a 2.07, so the larger dropoff occurred in the first half of the year and it steadied to a mere 0.04 drop in the second half. The first half average in 2016 was 2.44 compared to a first half average of 2.12 this year. That’s a dropoff of 0.28.

2017: 2.12 first half, 2.03 second half = decease of 0.09

2016: 2.44 first half, 2.07 second half = decrease of 0.37