Raw’s numbers down only slightly thanks to a second hour boost

The Nov. 29 edition of Raw still had Vince McMahon, but it didn’t have his egg. Probably more importantly, this past Monday came on the heels of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and McMahon’s presence wasn’t promoted as it had been the week before on a show that directly tied into Survivor Series.

Which is probably too many words worth of preamble to tell you that Raw’s numbers dipped this week. Average viewership across its three hours was down only slightly; the audience of 1.679 million was a 1.3% decline from the Nov. 22 episode.

The 18 - 49 year old demo rating fell a little bit more sharply, with this week’s .46 a 6% drop from the Monday prior.

Much more interesting than the week-to-week changes were the hourly patterns. Ratings and viewers spiked for the 9pm ET block, which featured Edge’s promo duel with The Miz. There’s also speculation that the lack of promotion for McMahon’s scenes with Austin Theory led to the higher second hour numbers, as fans found out online that Vince was on the show again.

You can form your own theory as you look at these hourly numbers:

Hour One: 1.679 million / .43
Hour Two: 1.763 million / .49
Hour Three: 1.594 million / .45

Raw came in fifth among cable originals on the night. Monday Night Football led the way as always, but the battle of teams with losing records (the now 5 - 6 Washington Football Team defeated the Seattle Seahawks, who are now 3 - 8) led to lower than normal numbers for the NFL (10.9 million viewers and a 3.08 demo rating).

Next week WWE is offering up a Women’s title clash. They better bring Edge and McMahon back, too, because ESPN will have a big game when the Buffalo Bills try to catch up to the division leading New England Patriots.

For complete results and this week’s Raw live blog click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For video highlights of the show click here.

Numbers via Showbuzz Daily