WWE Raw Rating for Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre match last week, key metrics compared to fall trends, overall ranking

Last week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, headlined by Drew McIntyre beating Randy Orton to capture the WWE Title, drew a 1.28 rating, above the 1.22 of the prior week. The average rating since Sept. 7 was 1.25.

The first hour drew 1.868 mlillion viewers, above the fall average of 1.786 million. The second drew 1.740 million, again above the 1.715 million fall average. The third hour drew 1.728 million, 1.544 million. The third hour-dropoff was much small than usual, indicative of the larger appeal of Orton vs. McIntyre compared to a typical Raw main event. The first-to-third hour dropoff was 140,000, below the fall average of 243,000 headed into this week.

This is indicative of the rating power of WWE featuring a rare WWE Title match live on Raw. Not a huge increase, but if you weren’t looking at what was on Raw, you would see these numbers and think they put something special on in the third hour to hold more viewers than usual.

WWE Raw finished no. 4, 6, and 7 in the cable rankings among 18-49 year olds. The NFL game on ESPN drew 11.450 million total viewers and a 3.23 rating in that demo. Raw drew 0.55, 0.50, and 0.48 ratings in that demo.

WWE should draw a larger rating, and likely the largest of the season, for the post-Survivor Series edition featuring the fallout from the Survivor Series, although they aren’t advertising anything near the level of Orton vs. McIntyre in a WWE Title match.

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