Every year it seems WWE goes through a downturn in ratings during the late fall and winter months. And that's because Monday Night Raw always faces strong competition from major pro sports.

This year, the show has also had to deal with the final Presidential debate.

Such was the case with last night's (Oct. 22, 2012) edition, the go home show to the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view this coming Sunday night. The numbers were low, as expected, but they held up quite well considering what the show was up against.

Raw averaged 3.55 million viewers, on the really low end but again, not terrible considering the other options. Here's the hourly breakdown:

Hour one: 3.58 million
Hour two: 3.65 million
Hour three: 3.43 million

Put simply, Raw was mostly terrible television but again, the competition was strong. Across the major cable networks, the Presidential debate did over 20 million viewers. The Chicago Bears vs. Detroit Lions Monday Night Football game on ESPN drew 11 million while game seven of the San Francisco Giants vs. St. Louis Cardinals MLB playoff series drew eight million.

How will this affect Hell in a Cell? Probably not much and really, it was likely a good thing so many viewers were off watching other programming.

For complete results to last night's episode of Raw click here and for reactions click here.