Last night's (May 13, 2013) episode of Monday Night Raw, which served as the go home show to this Sunday's (May 19) Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV) was once again up against an NBA playoff game. The second round match up between the defending champion Miami Heat and the big market Chicago Bulls dominated the ratings for the second Monday night in a row.
Despite being up against competition that devastated the E in the ratings last week (May 6), the promotion did somehow manage to muster some improvement to its numbers.
So here they are:
Raw averaged 4.15 million viewers for all three hours of the show. The Heat vs. Bulls game, meanwhile, averaged 4.96 million viewers. Let's take a look at the hourly breakdown:
Hour one: 3.79 million (even less than last week's dismal showing)
Hour two: 4.10 million (an improvement from last week, but not so good for the year to date)
Hour three: 4.25 million (also an improvement over last week's disaster)
Hour two has always been the highest rated of the show and hour three had been on a streak of 16 consecutive weeks of experiencing a drop from that second hour, so to see hour three exceeding hour two once again this week was a boost.
Take the victories when you can, even if they're small.
For complete results and the live blog click here. For reactions to the show click here and here. And for a playlist of the entire night click here.