WWE News: Raw viewership increases for New Year's Eve episode, down overall

What's the Story?

Monday Night Raw did not fare well in the ratings throughout most of 2018 and the final Raw of the year was no different.

The New Year's Eve episode of Raw got higher viewership than last week, but was still an all-time lowest rated episode.

In Case You Didn't Know...

Raw was pre-taped from Detroit, Michigan and featured Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler competing in a steel cage match at the start of the show.

The main event featured Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey teaming with Natalya against Nia Jax and Tamina.

The Heart of the Matter

Raw averaged 1.97 million viewers for the December 31 edition of the program and was up 193,000 from last week's Christmas Eve episode, which averaged 1.78 million viewers.

Hour one: 2.035 million

Hour two: 2.026 million

Hour three: 1.843 million

Pre-taped episodes of Raw usually have lower viewership than live broadcasts, but this marks the first time the show has brought in less than 2 million viewers for a two-week period.

The last Raw of 2017 aired live on Christmas Day and had a much higher viewership count of 2.706 million. Unfortunately, their ratings look even worse when compared to the last pre-taped Raw episode that aired on December 31.

The last episode of Raw to air on New Year' Eve was in 2012 and averaged 3.56 million viewers - up more than 1.5 million viewers from this week's show.

What's Next?

The first Raw episode of 2019 will take place on January 8 and is expected to feature John Cena, Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar returning to TV.

With the low viewership from this week's episode, Raw will be expected to make a big comeback in ratings for the first show of the new year.