WWE Raw Scores 'Shockingly Good' Ratings

Monday Night Raw faced stiff competition this week as the November 20 edition of Raw went up against the NFL match of the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles, which ended up being the most-watched Monday Night Football game in 27 years, averaging 28.96 million viewers.

Despite the competition, Wrestlenomics reported that Raw on USA Network averaged 1.459 million viewers, including approximately 644,000 in the key 18-49 demographic to register a 0.49 rating. Viewership in the key demo was the highest it had been since September 4 but total viewership was down one percent from last week's Raw which averaged 1.467 million.

There were fears that Raw on November 20 could end up drawing a record-low in the ratings but Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that viewership was "shockingly good."

"It was shockingly good. Especially because that football game did ridiculous numbers. The football game did over 29 million viewers between all of the different platforms. 7.46 in 18-49. So from the week before, it was up 64% in viewers and up 66% in 18-49. However, the Raw number, viewers were down like a third of a percent. The Raw viewership number was essentially the same as the week before which is amazing. Even more amazing, the 18-49 number was up 12%, they did a 0.49. That number is shocking," Meltzer said.

"Obviously the decline was great in over 50. But they did, against the toughest competition that they will face this year - in fact it was the most people watching football on a Monday night, for regular season Monday night, since 1996. The playoff Monday night games have done bigger. So they'll face one week of tougher competition which is when they have a playoff game on Monday early next year. But other than that, this is the toughest week by far that they're gonna face. And they did a great number. The best number since football season started as far as 18-49 went," he continued.

"It started out strong - it was just strong in 18-49 and the 18-49 number never got below a 0.45 the entire show. That's really pretty amazing. Viewer numbers declined greatly each hour. They started big, then they had a pretty big decline. The main event didn't do too badly. Drew and Jey Uso. The 11th quarter was pretty low, it was like 1.26 million. But they bounced back to 1.34 million for the end of that match and the post-match brawl. So yeah, absolutely great Raw number all things considered."

WWE are set to hold the latest edition of Survivor Series on Saturday, November 25. The post-Raw edition of Survivor Series will air on November 27.

H/T to WrestleTalk