WWE News: The Authority Returns, Raw Ratings Rise

What's the Story?

Vince McMahon and the family returned to Monday Night Raw after the TLC pay-per-view and the show's viewership got a significant increase.

The December 17 edition of Raw was up more than 300,000 viewers from the previous episode, making it one of the highest viewed shows since October.

In Case You Didn't Know...

Some of the highlights from this weeks show were Finn Balor vs. Dolph Ziggler, the fatal four way tag team match and the eight-woman gauntlet match that main evented the show.

However, the biggest story of the night was The Authority returning to the television to announce some "changes" to the flagship show.

The Heart of the Matter

Raw averaged 2.55 million viewers and was up 354,000 from last week's all-time lowest rated episode, which averaged 2.19 million.

Hour one: 2.717 million

Hour two: 2.558 million

Hour three: 2.367 million

Vince's return to TV was pushed heavily on social media and throughout the TLC pay-per-view, leading to the first hour getting a significant increase in viewers.

The show lost 350,000 viewers by the end of the night, but all three hours from this week's episode had the viewership that was much better than most of the episodes this fall.

Despite the negative reception to Vince's announcement, Raw's ratings for the December 17 episode helped the program bounce back from their streak of new all-time lowest rated shows.

What's Next?

Raw has been pre-taped for Christmas Eve next week and will kick off WWE's Holiday programming on USA Network.

The matches that took place on that show were Bobby Lashley vs. Elias in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight, Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs. The Revival for the Raw Tag Team Championships and Ronda Rousey vs.Natalya for the Raw Women's Championship.