Raw rating rebounds... to second worst ever

Coming off the lowest 18-49 year old demographic rating in recorded show history, all eyes were on that number for the Dec. 13 Raw.

And it improved! The .39 in that demo was a more than 11% increase over the week prior. Unfortunately, Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston points out that’s still the second worst number in recorded Raw history.

There is some good news, but while we’re on the not-so-good... overall viewership fell again. The 1.6% drop gave WWE and USA an average hourly audience of 1.574 million. Here’s the hourly breakdown:

Hour One: 1.620 million / .39
Hour Two: 1.627 million / .40
Hour Three: 1.474 million / .37

Despite being another important game and airing on ESPN & its broadcast sister network ABC, the Los Angeles Rams win over the Arizona Cardinals wasn’t quite the juggernaut that Monday Night Football Dec. 6 offering was. At a combined 14.55 million and 3.54 rating in 18-49, MNF was down 2.4% and 21% in those metrics, respectively. It seems reasonable to think some in the demo who skipped Raw for Patriots/Bills returned this week.

Football’s also tied into that other piece of good news — nothing but coverage of the game beat Raw on cable. WWE was able to eke out a win over Bravo’s Below Deck on Dec. 13 after finishing behind the reality show the week before. Huzzah!

Next Monday’s NFL game isn’t quite as exciting as the last week couple weeks, but Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears could impact the playoff race (in addition to causing Bears fans like Seth Rollins and our own Geno Mrosko to split their attention). Plus, it’s the last show before Christmas. Don’t expect a big surge in any of these numbers, is what I’m saying.

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