Raw Rating: Post-Rumble viewership surges, but there’s a mix of good news and bad news in the details (w/Keller’s Analysis)

Raw last night drew a 2.49 live rating on USA Network, the highest rating in more than six months. Last year, the episode of Raw the day after the Royal Rumble drew a 2.93 rating, so they are well below last year’s level for live viewership.

This week’s rating is the third straight week ratings have gone up for Raw coinciding with the Royal Rumble build and the end of football competition on Monday nights.

The monthly average for January lands at 2.21, up from 2.00 in December and 2.07 in November, 1.98 and October, and 1.98 in September.

The ten-week rolling average going into last night’s show was 2.09.

The story of the show is how WWE held the audience better than anytime in recent history. The drop-off from the first to the third hour was a relatively minuscule 54,000. By comparison, the average first-to-third hour drop-off the previous 12 weeks was 289,000.

Keller’s Analysis: It’s one thing to pop a big number due to interest in the Royal Rumble fallout, but it’s another to hold viewership against the usual trend as the show progressed. Credit goes to WWE for building the Triple H-Seth Rollins segment well and an intriguing Braun Strowman challenge of Kevin Owens. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman appearing unannounced certainly helped deter channel-flipping during a stretch of time in the third hour that is usually regarded as mid-card filler leading to the main event.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S RAW RATINGS REPORT: Raw Rating: Royal Rumble season and Goldberg advertised appearance leads to jump, year-ago perspective (w/Keller’s Analysis)