WWE Raw draws best 18-49 demo rating since November

Raw on Monday pulled its biggest 18-49 demo number since the episode after Survivor Series.

With the show headlined by Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre and Gunther vs. Jey Uso for the IC title, Monday’s Raw averaged 1.87 million viewers with a 0.63 rating in 18-49 and a huge 0.51 rating in 18-34, which is where the major change from usual was.

Raw was first for the night on cable. It beat everything on television except the first half hour went head-to-head with the post-show for the Daytona 500 on Fox that did a 0.67 rating in 18-49, and an 0.63 on cable is far better than a 0.67 on network.

Raw was up seven percent in viewers from last week, up 13 percent in 18-49, and up 24 percent in 18-34.

The big competition was college basketball on ESPN which did 643,000 viewers and a 0.19 for the early game and 1,002,000 viewers and a 0.36 for the later game. There was also a NASCAR Xfinity series race on FS1 that did 933,000 viewers and a 0.14 in 18-49.

From one year ago, which was the episode after last year’s Elimination Chamber, Raw was down seven percent in viewers but up 14 percent in 18-49 and up 24 percent in 18-34. Factoring in the losses of homes by cable, the real percentage change figures based on homes available would be down two percent in viewers, but up 25 percent in 18-34 and up 36 percent in 18-34.

The three hours were:

• 8 p.m. 1.97 million viewers
• 9 p.m. 1.90 million viewers
• 10 p.m. 1.75 million viewers