Raw Rating: With Roman Reigns advertised appearance and two matches, Big E’s celebration, Raw increases demos, other key metrics

The advertised appearance of Roman Reigns and a show book-ended by matches with Reigns and new WWE Champion Big E was just enough to tie last week’s Raw cable rating of 1.24 up against Monday Night Football, but it’s still the lowest rating since July 12.

The show averaged 1.793 million viewers, up from last week’s 1.670 million. Last week viewership increased from the first hour to the third hour because of the tease of the Money in the Bank cash-in and a WWE Title match between Bobby Lashley and Randy Orton. This week, hour one drew better than last week (1.860M compared to 1.672M) with the advertised Reigns appearance, but it sunk in the third hour with 193,000 fewer viewers than in the first hour, among the biggest drops over the last five months. It indicated diminishing returns for a second appearance of Reigns and Big E, despite it being a different format match (Triple Threat vs. Six-Man Tag).

The hourly averages were:

• 1.860M
• 1.853M
• 1.667M

Key demographics were also up:

• 18-49 adults: 0.49, up from 0.43 last week
• 18-49 males: 0.65, up from 0.50 last week
• 18-34 males: 0.40, up from 0.27 last week

Raw was loaded this week, presumably to battle ESPN’s Monday Night Football but also motivated by AEW scoring key demographic ratings victories over Raw the last two weeks on Dynamite. With AEW presenting the big Grand Slam episode of AEW Dynamite with a loaded line-up including Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson, Dynamite is poised to score its best ratings since its premiere episode nearly two years ago. The growth in Raw demos this week make it a steeper climb for Dynamite to keep that streak going, but it’s within reach.

Raw was no. 2 on cable behind ESPN’s football game in the 18-49 demographic.