WWE Raw ratings (Jan. 18, 2016): Viewers up but not by much for Royal Rumble go home show

WWE could reasonably expect that viewers would be up for Monday Night Raw this week thanks to the fact that both the NFL and college football seasons are over and competition from major sporting events was gone. Reality, as is often the case, was a stiff kick to the groin.

This week's show was up to 3.48 million viewers, better than the 3.32 million the show drew last week against the college football title game but down from the 3.57 million the week before. The hourly breakdown is a particularly hard hit to take:

Hour one: 3.78 million
Hour two: 3.59 million
Hour three: 3.12 million

That is a disastrous final hour considering the fact that football is no longer tearing viewers away and this was the big angle heading into what should be one of the biggest events on the WWE calendar this year. Put simply, fans had no reason to stay after watching Chris Jericho, Roman Reigns, and the League of Nations talk about talking more later in the opening act. Even the promise of Brock Lesnar in the main event did nothing to convince viewers to stick around.

For complete results and the live blog from Raw click here. For a recap with reactions to all the night's events click here. To watch highlights of the show click here.