Leading into WrestleMania 30, the Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H program was the top draw of Raw each week. Coming out of WM30, Bryan as new WWE World Hvt. champion has been solidified as a ratings draw.
Monday's post-WM30 Raw scored the highest overall rating since Raw 1,000 on the strength of Bryan's show-opening celebration segment and teased WWE Title match against Triple H in the over-run. Plus, a team effort of several other segments drawing big audiences throughout the show.
Specific to Bryan, Raw opened with a 2.70 males 18-49 rating, which blew away a 1.85 rating in the same Q1 segment last week. Raw then closed with a 2.91 m18-49 over-run rating, growing on last week's 2.68 over-run rating for the final image of Bryan standing tall after attacking Hunter heading into WM30.
The top non-Bryan segments of the show were Paige capturing the Divas Title from A.J. in Q10 and Hulk Hogan presenting Cesaro with the Andre the Giant trophy in Q11. This helped offset the usual third-hour decline and actually grow the third hour to the point that it topped five million overall viewers for the first time since Raw 1,000.
Also, Paul Heyman's promo on behalf of Brock Lesnar addressing The Undertaker in Q5 drew a strong rating. And, Ultimate Warrior's TV return in Q9 ranked in the middle of the pack.
Raw Break Down - m18-49 demo
- Overall Show: 2.48 rating / 1.562 million viewers
- Q1: Raw opened with a regular-show-high 2.70 rating for the immediate WM30 follow-up and Daniel Bryan's celebration. Noteworthy is the quarter-hour grew substantially from the beginning to end. So, it was not a case of a huge surge at 8:00 p.m. EST for immediate follow-up on The Streak ending, then viewers tuning out.
The segment grew from 1.555 million viewers at 8:03 p.m. to 1.770 million viewers at 8:06 p.m. to 1.814 million viewers at 8:08 p,m. to 1.836 million viewers at 8:12 p.m. to a peak audience of 1.843 million viewers at 8:13 p.m. when the title match main event was set up.
- Q2: Raw settled down to a 2.47 rating for two commercial breaks and ring introductions for the opening match.
The ring intros drew the second-largest audience of the show, peaking with 1.879 million viewers at 8:22 p.m. prior to a commercial.
- Q3: Raw increased to a 2.53 rating for The Wyatts vs. John Cena, Big E., and Sheamus, plus one commercial. The end of the match drew a solid audience, peaking with 1.809 million viewers at 8:42 p.m.
- Q4: Raw dropped to a 2.35 rating for two commercials and Santino & Emma vs. Fandango & Summer Rae in a mixed tag match.
- Q5: Raw jumped to a 2.58 rating at the top of the second hour for Heyman's promo and viewers thinking perhaps Taker would make an appearance.
The segment built from 1.687 million viewers at 9:01 p.m. to a peak of 1.817 million viewers at 9:06 p.m. Some of the audience tuned out during the second-half of the promo, though, as the final four minutes drew fewer than 1.8 million.
- Q6: Raw dropped to a 2.22 rating for The Usos vs. Randy Orton & Batista, one commercial, and Rob Van Dam's unannounced TV return. The peak audience was 1.634 million viewers at 9:22 when Raw cut to break following the tag match.
- Q7: Raw was about the same at a show-low 2.21 rating for Rey Mysterio vs. Bad News Barrett and one commercial.
- Q8: Raw increased to a 2.30 rating for two full commercials and Rusev squashing Zack Ryder.
- Q9: Raw bumped up to a 2.51 rating at the top of the third hour for Ultimate Warrior's TV return and final promo, plus one commercial, and Paige debuting to confront Divas champion A.J. Lee.
The segment peaked with 1.737 million viewers at 10:04 p.m. as Warrior wrapped up his speech.
- Q10: Raw held steady with a 2.49 rating for Paige capturing the Divas Title from A.J., which popped a big audience of 1.823 million viewers at 10:19 p.m. Raw then cut to break and returned with the start of Hulk Hogan presenting the Andre trophy to Cesaro.
- Q11: Raw increased to a 2.64 rating for Hogan congratulating Cesaro, the Real Americans breaking up, Cesaro aligning with Paul Heyman, one commercial, and Cesaro vs. Jack Swagger.
The first-half of the segment drew a huge audience - 1.801 million viewers at 10:31 p.m., then 1.834 million viewers at 10:33 p.m., and a peak of 1.877 million viewers at 10:34 p.m. heading to break.
- Q12: Raw settled down to a 2.36 rating for two full commercial breaks and backstage segments leading to the main event.
- Over-run: Raw popped a 2.91 rating for the teased Bryan vs. Hunter title match that turned into an angle setting up Bryan & Shield vs. The Authority, Batista, and Orton.
The over-run started with 1.710 million viewers, jumped to 1.948 million viewers at 11:05 p.m. before many people's DVRs cut out, then went off the air with 1.932 million viewers and 1.878 million viewers.
Top Minutes of Raw
- Over-Run (Bryan-Hunter): 1.948 million viewers peak
- Q2 (Wyatts-Team Cena set-up): 1.879 million viewers
- Q1 (Bryan Celebration): 1.843 million viewers
- Q11 (Cesaro/Heyman/Hogan): 1.834 million viewers
- Q10 (A.J.-Paige): 1.823 million viewers
- Q5 (Heyman on Taker): 1.817 million viewers
- Q3 (Wyatts-Team Cena ending): 1.809 million viewers
- Q9 (Warrior): 1.737 million viewers
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