The Rock’s surprise return helps WWE Raw draw big ratings
The unannounced return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and a hyped Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre World title match led to Raw averaging 1.75 million viewers on Monday night with a 0.60 rating in 18-49, the best marks since the episode where CM Punk returned.
The competition was far tougher with the college football playoff semifinals, as the Michigan vs. Alabama Rose Bowl game did 27.2 million viewers and peaked at 32.8 million, a period against the early part of Raw. The Washington vs. Texas Sugar Bowl game, the other playoff semifinal, going against the last two hours, including The Rock’s appearance, did 18.4 million viewers.
It was the first week without NFL football against Raw, although the Rose Bowl game did better than NFL games would do in the first hour. The Sugar Bowl game did a number along the lines of what the NFL had been doing.
The number would have been higher had Johnson been advertised, as the only tease was a former WWE champion returning and there wasn’t much talk about it being Rock until a photo tease that showed Rock at the Rose Bowl with Nick Khan.
Raw was up 12 percent from the show two weeks ago (last week was a best of show), but up 27 percent in 18-49 and up 17 percent in 18-34.
From one year ago, the audience was up nine percent in viewers, but up 48 percent in 18-49 and up 58 percent in 18-34, showing again that Raw is delivering far more younger viewers than it was one year ago, but that people over 50 have remained way down since August.
Raw’s first hour number was actually down from the show two weeks ago, but the second hour after the Rose Bowl ended increased greatly.
The Johnson segment did 2.15 million viewers and a 0.79 rating in 18-49. The show dropped greatly from that point but did pick back up for the Rollins vs. McIntyre main event. The main event was way up from the first quarter and that’s almost unheard of.
The three hours were:
- 8 p.m. 1.62 million viewers
- 9 p.m. 1.86 million viewers
- 10 p.m. 1.77 million viewers
