It has been a rough few months’ worth of television ratings for WWE’s flagship program, Raw. On July 4 this year, the show set an all-time holiday ratings low in viewers, but that was to be expected. What was also (slightly) expected was the downturn in viewers during the NFL season, as the show goes head-to-head with Monday Night Football each week. Ratings cratered just a month ago, as the Raw that ran opposite both MNF and the first Presidential debate set an official, all-time viewership low.
So you can bet there was some rejoicing in the Stamford WWE offices today when the overnight ratings came in. According to ShowBuzz Daily, Monday night’s episode of Raw — built around the much-hyped return of Goldberg following a 12-year absence from WWE — jumped the ratings by 13.5 percent over last week. The three-hour show pulled in 3.130 million viewers, compared to 2.758 million from last week. All three hours drew over 3 million viewers, the first time Raw has accomplished that since the NFL season kicked off.
Raw was No. 4 in the cable ratings last night, and was No. 2 in the coveted 18-49 demographic, behind only Monday Night Football. Brock Lesnar will be on Raw next week, presumably to accept Goldberg’s acceptance of his challenge and possibly set Survivor Series as the date of their big rematch. So the gamble of bringing back Goldberg is paying off, for the time being. Let’s see if interest continues all the way through Lesnar and Goldberg’s actual match.
