Raw ratings up despite big third hour drop

Coming the day after Fastlane, Raw was up four percent from last week, averaging 3.20 million viewers, with a particularly strong second hour but a major drop in the third hour.

The number was virtually identical to that of two weeks earlier and based on normal patterns of gaining about 10 percent after football season ends, Raw should be doing 3.2 million viewers weekly right now.

Raw was second to the O’Reilly Factor (3.85 million viewers) for the night on cable.

The key second hour item was the Goldberg-Brock Lesnar face-to-face angle where Lesnar laid Goldberg out with an F-5.

There was an across the board third hour drop, of 13 percent, far larger than usual, even in the male demos which usually hold steady in that hour.

The third hour was built around a confrontation with Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman that never happened, and Undertaker was never advertised to appear, and both Lesnar and Goldberg had already appeared by that time.

The three hours were:

• 8 p.m. 3.32 million viewers
• 9 p.m. 3.38 million viewers
• 10 p.m 2.95 million viewers