WWE Raw ratings down three percent, Reigns-Lashley keeps interest

Raw last night averaged 2.77 million viewers, down three percent from the prior week.

The first hour was well down, but the show kept the audience stronger, particularly in hour three, which has to be attributed to interest in the Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley match for the shot at Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam.

In a comparison from last week, last week was helped by being the day after the Extreme Rules pay-per-view and with the Brock Lesnar ultimatum, but also faced far tougher television competition. 

Raw moved up to fourth place on cable, trailing three news shows. Raw also beat FOX and CW programming on the network, so really for the three hours beat every station except ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox News.

An interesting note, which is very much the exception to normal patterns, is that the women audience was more loyal, and actually grew, while the male audience was the one less interested as the show went on.

In women 18-49, the first-to-third hour growth was 10 percent while the male drop was one percent. With teenage girls, the first-to-third hour growth was 15 percent while the male drop was seven percent.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.82 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.82 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.70 million viewers