Universal title match powers Raw to solid ratings

With the show built around a four-way for the vacant Universal title, Raw did some of its best numbers in a long time for a show that wasn’t the day after a PPV.

In fact, the 3.41 million viewers was up three percent from last week’s show, the day after SummerSlam. Even with the lack of major competition, under normal patterns that wouldn’t be the case. It was the best number for Raw since the show the day after Money in the Bank.

The key is that the viewers cared about the Universal title match and it had a week of advertising directly.

Raw was third for the night on cable, trailing only Rizzoli & Isles (4.83 million viewers) and Major Crimes (3.98 million viewer) on TNT.

The other positive, again pointing to the title match, is that the third hour decline was almost nonexistent, and in the 18-49 demo, the third hour was up four percent from the second hour and was the highest rated hour on cable in that demo last night.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.39 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.44 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.41 million viewers