The loaded up Raw go-home show last night with the easiest competition since August did 3.29 million viewers, up slightly from the 3.26 million last week going against a marquee NBA game.
While next week’s show should be way up, probably doing one of the best numbers of 2017 for the day after the Rumble, this does look to be the level, or perhaps a little above the level, the show will be doing the next few months.
The show was built around Bill Goldberg’s return. Brock Lesnar was advertised locally but not pushed on television. Undertaker’s return was kept secret so that had no bearing on the number, and in hindsight, since Undertaker has helped drive strong numbers recently, perhaps that was a mistake this time around.
Even with the push throughout the show where it was clear Goldberg was in the final segment, the third hour was still down, although that doesn’t mean it didn’t pick up for the overrun.
There was the usual drop for the over 50 audience but less of a drop in other categories, but every demo was down from the second hour to the third hour.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.31 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.46 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.11 million viewers
Here’s a chart from Paul Fontaine that looks at the last 10 weeks of Raw ratings compared to previous years. It should be noted that the 2016, 2015, and 2013 episodes for this week were all post-Royal Rumble episodes: