WWE’s ratings for Raw on Mondays began ticking upwards after the NFL regular season ended, but now that we’re finally, officially, for real on the Road to WrestleMania following Sunday’s Royal Rumble, things are likely to get even better until the summer doldrums grab hold of us once again.
Even though Monday’s episode didn’t even feature the actual winner of the Rumble match, and the show was fairly run-of-the-mill until Samoa Joe’s big debut right at the tail end of the episode, interest in the Road to WrestleMania continues to show an allure, as more people tuned into this week’s show than have watched any episode of WWE television since last April, just after WrestleMania.
ShowBuzz Daily, as always, brings us those tasty, delectable ratings numbers. The show managed to be No. 1 in the cable ratings for an original show for the first time in a good long while, and pulled in 3.615 million viewers at its peak, up 10 percent from last week. The coveted 18-49 demographic was up a whole 14 percent from last week, which is a great sign. That rating comes off hours of 3.628 million viewers, 3.643 million, and 3.574 million.
The Raw after WrestleMania 32, on April 4 last year, drew 4.094 million viewers, and this is the largest viewership WWE has had since then.
[camera cuts to Vince McMahon rubbing his hands and licking his lips like Birdman]
While Raw continues to lose some viewers in its final hour, the big surprise of Samoa Joe this week, and potential similar big developments in coming weeks could go a long way toward shoring that up. The long and the short of it is, we’re barreling toward WrestleMania, and that’s enough to have people tuning in once again.
