WWE Raw ratings up for season premiere episode

Raw last night averaged 1.66 million viewers, drew a 0.47 rating in 18-49, and drew a 0.29 in 18-34, all numbers well up from last week’s episode that set the show’s all-time record low in 18-49.

The difference more than anything would be no baseball competition. The New Orleans Saints vs. Seattle Seahawks NFL game did 12.80 million viewers between ESPN and ESPN2, but that was the only sports competition.

Raw was up four percent in viewers, but up 19 percent in 18-49 and 28 percent in 18-34 from last week.

But as compared to one year ago on the same week, Raw was down four percent in viewers and down seven percent in 18-49. The show was up 22 percent in 18-34.

It was back to usual patterns with the third-hour drop, although that drop was all related to women and those over 50. As far as keeping the audience, the ladder match main event did extremely well with men but not as well with other groups.

Raw was sixth for the night, behind only NFL-related programming on ESPN and ESPN2. The show was seventh in women 18-49, seventh in men 18-49, seventh in 18-34, fifth in women 12-34, and eighth in men 12-34.

It was 15th in total viewers, beating everything but NFL-related shows on ESPN and news programming.

The first-to-third hour declines were with women and older viewers largely. Women 18-49 dropped eight percent from hour one to three. Men 18-49 and 12-34 stayed even, which is unusually good, but teenage girls fell 34 percent from hour one to three, and over 50 viewers fell 11 percent.

The three hours were:

• 8 p.m. 1.73 million viewers
• 9 p.m. 1.67 million viewers
• 10 p.m. 1.58 million viewers