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What’s the story?
Monday Night Raw averaged more than three million viewers for the first time since the Raw after Survivor Series.
The 15 January edition of Raw averaged 3.25 million viewers and was up 490,000 from the previous week’s average of 2.76 million
In case you didn’t know...
The show opened with Braun Strowman being fired by Kurt Angle and the Monster Among Men running rampant backstage for most of the show until he was eventually rehired. The biggest matches on the show were Asuka versus Nia Jax, Sasha Banks versus Sonya Deville, and Finn Bálor versus Seth Rollins.
The heart of the matter
The following is the hourly breakdown for this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw as per ShowBuzzDaily:
Hour one: 3.573 million
Hour two: 3.363 million
Hour three: 2.814 million
Raw’s viewership suffered greatly facing stiff competition against the NCAA College Football Playoffs and Championship game in the first weeks of the new year, but this week’s show faced no competition from College Football nor the NFL.
The first hour of the show averaged 3.573 million viewers and generated the largest viewership in the first hour since the Raw after WrestleMania 33 which averaged 3.826 million at the start of the program.
The second hour of this week’s show suffered a loss of 210,000 viewers, but the biggest drop occurred in the third hour when Raw lost 549,000 in viewership.
What’s next?
The highly-anticipated 25th Anniversary episode will take place next week and will be the final Raw before the Royal Rumble.
WWE is pulling out all the stops for this episode and has announced a myriad of legends and former superstars for the show. The special edition will be broadcasted from both the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York and the Manhattan Center in New York City.
Author’s take
Despite this week’s show generating the best viewership in two months, many fans felt that the overall episode was lacking in substance and believe that Raw is coasting along until the upcoming 25th Anniversary show.
Hopefully, Raw 25 will be everything the company and the fans are hoping for.
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