Raw viewers stuck around to see who Seth Rollins would face at WrestleMania

Raw was minus the WWE champion on Mar. 14, and one half of several of the big feuds the show is building for WrestleMania. It also faced nationally televised live sports competition for the first time in almost two months.

Given all that, the fact its 18-49 demographic ratings rose more than 6.5% over the week prior should probably be considered a win. The .48 hourly average wasn’t good enough to win the night — it finished second among cable originals, behind the .53 scored by the early game in ESPN’s NBA doubleheader between Philadelphia & Denver.

Still gains are gains. And WWE & USA will focus on the demo since overall viewership dropped 4% from Mar. 4, to an hourly average of 1.7 million.

Digging into those hours is where things get interesting? The 9pm ET hour outperformed the first, which is actually not unusual for the first episode after most of the U.S. starts daylight saving time. Even under those circumstances, however, it’s rare for the third hour to do so. That’s what happened this week.

Here’s the hourly break down for total viewers and 18-49:

Hour One: 1.668 million / .46
Hour Two: 1.755 million / .49
Hour Three: 1.678 million / .48

The episode’s nightlong focus was on Seth Rollins’ WrestleMania plans. Were fans tuning in to see if Cody Rhodes would show up at the end of the night? That was certainly the online buzz throughout the show.

If the current reports are right and he’s going to show up eventually, will fans continue to tune in?

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