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WWE Monday Night Raw drew a 1.27 rating last night, the best rating since June 29, and an uptick from the 1.20 average in July.
WWE issued late teases through its website and social media about a return of Shane McMahon and a mystery faction, which might have led to some of the increase in the rating. That said, first hour viewership was just 11,000 higher than last week – 1.710 million compared t0 1.699 million. They drew their largest second hour rating since June 22 with 1.824 million viewers, well above last week’s 1.688 million.
There was a dropoff in the third hour, once the Shane “Raw Underground” surprise was revealed. The Raw Underground concept didn’t do a good job holding the new second hour viewers, but overall, the third hour viewreship was only 100,000 lower than the first hour, the smallest dropoff in three weeks and well below the 255,000 average first-to-third hour dropoff average this year.
One year ago, Raw drew a 1.72 rating. Two years ago it drew a 1.96 rating. Three year ago it drew a 2.20 rating.
Raw drew a 0.51 rating in the 18-49 demo, above last week’s 0.48. It dropped in the male 18-34 demo, though, to a 0.31 compared to a 0.33.
In the cable rankings Monday night, Raw finished in positions 4, 5, and 6 with hourly 18-49 demo ratings of 0.55, 0.51, and 0.48 for hours two, three, and one respectively. TLC’s “90 Day Fiance” topped the chart with a 0.81 demo rating and 2.919 million viewers in total. The NBA came in sceond place with a 0.73 demo rating and 1.615 million viewers.
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Unfortunately Vince will see the ratings increase and credit it to that underground garbage. That was terrible and WWE is just about unwatchable now.