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What’s the story?
Monday Night Raw averaged 2.786 million viewers, up 101,000 from last week’s average of 2.685 million.
In case you didn’t know...
The first hour of Raw kicked off with the return of Brock Lesnar and was followed up by Seth Rollins versus Jason Jordan. The second hour of Raw featured Hideo Itami making his debut and Cedric Alexander taking on Drew Gulak to determine the No.1 Contender for the Cruiserweight Championship.
The final hour of Raw featured Jordan, Rollins and Dean Ambrose against Samoa Joe, Cesaro & Sheamus as well as Stephanie McMahon announcing the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble Match.
The heart of the matter
The following is the hourly breakdown of the Dec. 18 episode of Raw:
Hour one: 3.085 million
Hour two: 2.803 million
Hour three: 2.470 million
The change from hour one to hour two resulted in 282,000 viewers tuning out, but the biggest decrease would occur in the third hour with a loss of 333,000 viewers for an average of 2.470 million in the final hour; down 100,000 viewers from last week’s third hour.
Raw was up against the NFL game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as six NBA games – half of which started prior to Raw’s broadcast.
This show featured the return of Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder of The Revival for the first time since Dawson’s biceps injury. Lesnar’s return marked the first time the Beast Incarnate’s been seen on WWE programming since the Nov. 13 episode, the last Raw before Survivor Series.
Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns was absent from yesterday’s show and was reported by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter to be off TV due requested time off.
What’s next?
Next week’s Raw will air on Christmas Day and the match currently promoted for the show will be The Shield versus Joe, Cesaro & Sheamus. However, that match could be changed if Ambrose’s elbow injury is too severe.
The Christmas Day Raw will also be up against the NFL game between the Oakland Raiders and the Philadelphia Eagles that will begin 30 minutes into Raw’s broadcast as well as two NBA games
Author’s take
Better writing and a better main event could’ve boosted Raw’s viewership further, but nothing will be able to help them next week when they air on Christmas.
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