Though expectations had to be tapered once FOX’s broadcast of the Daytona 500 was relocated to primetime, ratings for Monday’s RAW still greatly underwhelmed given the importance of the show.
The episode, which featured The Rock’s live return and a heated promo between him and WrestleMania opponent John Cena, mustered only a 1.8 adults 18-49 rating with 4.7 million viewers. The cable coverage rating was a 3.1.
While the second hour performed slightly better with adults 18-49, it interestingly fared worse with total viewers. That statistic is very telling surprising given that one would have expected a massive audience for The Rock’s lengthy overrun segment.
A quarter hour breakdown will tell the full story, but it appears the second hour was victimized by a lower-than-expected (but still likely quite good) overrun performance and very disappointing viewership for the rest of the post-10PM segments.
Update: There is a report going around saying that the promo between The Rock and John Cena performed very well for the first fifteen minutes but then actually lost viewers for the final few. We’ll have to wait for a more complete breakdown, but that kind of trend would be very shocking given how compelling most analysts found that final segment.