-- At least for this week, whether it was people needing entertainment or a combination of airing the Royal Rumble and having Steve Austin, Undertaker, and Edge on the show, a Raw almost devoid of first-run wrestling did 2.34 million viewers.
It was the best number for the show since February 17, and up eight percent from last week.
Raw still took the top three spots in 18-49 with a 0.76 average, with no cable news show beating 0.55.
Raw continued its daylight savings time pattern of the second hour being the highest rated, perhaps because of the re-airing of this year's men's Royal Rumble match. Austin was saved for last, and there was a very significant second to third hour drop of 15 percent.
The first-to-third hour drops in the key demos were not far off what a normal show would get, with women 18-49 down 11 percent from hour one-to-three, men 18-49 down 13 percent, and teenage boys down 19 percent. Teenage girls actually grew
Raw was 14th for the night overall on cable with the news shows on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC doing well above usual numbers.
Raw was down 13 percent from the same week last year.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 2.41 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.49 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.11 million viewers