WWE had their first Monday night without any football competition since the summer last night (Jan. 23). In addition to that, it was not only the final Raw before Royal Rumble, but also an anniversary show loaded with legends — a strategy that’s always worked for them.
According to Showbuzz Daily, it worked again. Raw XXX was watched by an average of 2,344,000 people per hour, with a .70 among 18-49 year olds. Nothing else on cable or broadcast television had a better number in the demo (CBS’ The Neighborhood and ABC’s The Bachelor came closest with .66 and .65 ratings, respectively).
Those numbers are obviously way above last week, when a normal episode of Raw went against a huge NFL playoff game. John Pollock of Post Wrestling points out they’re the show’s best since February of 2020, or before the pandemic lockdown kicked off a year-plus run of episodes in empty venues.
A commercial-free first hour featuring the heavily promoted Bloodline Trial of Sami Zayn buoyed the numbers, but they were better than normal all night long.
Hour One: 2.64 million / .80
Hour Two: 2.37 million / .69
Hour Three: 2.02 million / .60
The question now is, how many of these viewers can WWE hold onto through WrestleMania season and into the summer. Next week’s Royal Rumble fallout show should do well. It’ll be interesting to see where the numbers go from there.
For complete results and this week’s Raw live blog click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For video highlights of the show click here.
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