The first episode of Raw following the news that WWE named Paul Heyman as the Executive Director of the show led to their most-watched episode in six weeks.
Monday’s show averaged 2,496,000 viewers on the USA Network representing a 10% increase over last week’s number and highest since the May 20th edition. It was their fourth-highest number since WrestleMania trailing the night after WrestleMania, the Superstar Shakeup episode, and the May 20th edition the night after Money in the Bank with the tease of a Brock Lesnar cash-in.
The first hour has an average viewership of 2,468,000 viewers that can be attributed to curiosity about the changes to the show and the opening angle with Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley.
In the second hour, it grew 8.4% to 2,678,000 viewers, which is the highest second-hour viewership since the night of the Superstar Shakeup on April 15th. The second hour I would attribute to the Lashley-Strowman angle and people tuning in and would be an endorsement of the overall flow to the show that they didn’t turn anyone off.
The third hour experienced a drop of 12.7%. Despite the drop, it was still their second-best number in the third hour since the Superstar Shakeup in April.
The year-to-year drop was 7.7% when comparing this week’s figure to the same week in 2018.
