WWE Raw viewers down, but they stuck around

Reactions to the second episode of Paul Heyman’s tenure as Executive Director of Monday Night Raw were all over the board. A lot hated the July 8 show. Many felt it was a step down for a strong edition the week before. At least one person really liked it.

There were other factors beyond critical reception at play, too. This was the ‘go home’ show for the Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV). We were coming off what was for many a long holiday weekend here in the States - that’s why ratings numbers were delayed a day. And WWE was going against the popular Major League Baseball Home Run Derby on ESPN.

An audience averaging 2.35 million viewers, down from last week’s 2.49 million, isn’t what anyone at WWE or USA Network was hoping for. However, there was a big positive in the numbers.

Check out the hourly breakdown:

Hour one: 2.38 million
Hour two: 2.35 million
Hour three: 2.32 million

Those are some pretty impressive holds. Even better, Raw’s overall rating went up with the 18 - 49 year old demographic. The 8PM eastern hour drew a .71, while the latter two hours got a .73 (this came from the rating among women, which rose from .52 to .56; men stayed steady at .90 all three hours).

It’s only one week. But there are signs things like telling an episode-long stories such as the Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre’s search for a partner for Roman Reigns, Ricochet standing up to The Club, and Bayley & Nikki Cross’ Beat The Clock challenge might work to get people to stick around.

Imagine if the show-long stories could be counted on to be good every Monday...

Get complete Raw results and the live blog here, a recap of the show here, and highlights right here.

Source: Showbuzz Daily