Raw Rating: Notable hourly number for the Women’s Gauntlet Match, perspective on various data (w/Keller’s Analysis)

Raw drew a 2.02 rating last night, down slightly from the 2.04 last week. It’s the third week out of the last four that Raw has drawn above a 2.00 rating after going all of May sub-2.00. The June average turned out to be 1.96, above the May average of 1.88, but below the January, February, March, and April averages which ranged from 2.18 and 2.31.

The ten-week rolling average coming into this week was 1.95. The 2017 average is 2.12, below the 2.51 average through this week in 2016.

The notable stat is that for the second time this year, the third hour drew more viewers than the first hour by 64,000. As usual, the second hour was the highest rated hour.

A year ago Raw drew a 2.21 rating, well above the 2.02 it drew this week.

Keller’s Analysis: The third hour had averaged 2.677 million viewers the previous ten weeks, and this week it drew 2.951 million viewers, so the increase can be attributed to the Brock Lesnar-Samoa Joe segment at the start of the hour, but the bulk of the hour was the Women’s Gauntlet Match, which apparently drew well enough to buoy the third hour to an increase over the first. The first hour, by contrast, drew 2.887 million, which was slightly below the ten week average of 2.935 million. So the third hour increase over the first hour was a result of the first hour being below normal and the third hour being above average.