Raw last night bounced back eight percent from the low marks the past few weeks, doing 2.72 million viewers.
The key to the rating was the third hour had less of a decline than usual with the four-way men’s main event of Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor vs. Bobby Roode.
The number was well below the 3.10 million viewers that the first show last year did after the conclusion of the NBA playoffs.
Raw was seventh for the night on cable, but beat everything but Fox News coverage, and also beat three of the five broadcast networks, with mostly rerun programming running against it aside from The Bachelorette.
The unusual development is that the third-hour decline, usually highest among women, was actually slightly higher, five percent as opposed to three percent, among men in the 18-49 demo.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 2.75 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.81 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.63 million viewers