Viewers stick with Raw even against the Home Run Derby

Raw went up against live sports for the first time in several weeks on July 18. That kept it from winning the night, but it didn’t stop its numbers from trending up.

The show averaged 1.765 million viewers across its three hours, a 2% increase over the previous Monday. The .46 rating among 18-49 year olds was 4.5% better than July 11.

With Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby watched by more than 6 million and drawing a 1.72 in the demo, Raw obviously wasn’t the highest rated cable original. But everything that finished in front of WWE and USA was related to ESPN’s coverage of the popular pre-All Star Game event (the Derby itself, the pre-show, and a Derek Jeter 30 For 30 documentary that followed). Only one broadcast program, ABC’s The Bachelorette’s .71, did a better 18-49 rating than Raw.

While it followed the usual summer patter of peaking in the 9pm ET hour, Raw again had great holds. In fact, younger viewers seemed to stick around for the Logan Paul main event. The third hour outperformed the first with all under 50 demos, and even with the second hour’s .32 among 18-34 year olds.

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

Hour One: 1.78 million / .45
Hour Two: 1.81 million / .48
Hour Three: 1.70 million / .46

They should be able to do better next Monday with a loaded pre-SummerSlam show. And without live sports, it will probably finish first on cable too.

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