Raw on 1/23 did a 3.17 rating and 4.61 million viewers, showing a little bit of signs of the usual January bounce back. The show was fourth for the night on cable and was the first Raw in months without any nationally televised sports competition.
That would explain the Male skew being 68.1%, the highest in months, and increases in the key demos with a 2.6 among Male teens (up 24% and being the highest rated show on TV that night in this demo which had been struggling), 2.9 in Males 18-49 (up 4%), 1.4 in Women 12-17 (double that of last week) and 1.1 in Women 18-49 (down 8%).
The show opened strong doing a 3.49 first quarter with the set up stuff with C.M. Punk, John Cena and John Laurinaitis.
However, Punk & Cena vs. Jack Swagger & Dolph Ziggler lost 528,000 viewers. That's not unusual for the time slot, but you would think with Punk & Cena that people would have stayed past the first quarter.
The Chris Jericho Highlight Reel segment lost 287,000 viewers.
Kane vs. Zack Ryder which ended with the big sell stretcher job gained 601,000 viewers, which did well for the strongly sold angle.
Sheamus vs. Jinder Mahal lost 490,000 viewers.
Brodus Clay vs. Heath Slater gained 35,000 viewers.
Miz vs. R-Truth lost 19,000 viewers.
The tease of Punk vs. Laurinaitis and ending angle gained 761,000 viewers to a 3.54 overrun. That's normal level overrun growth, but better than usual for a segment anchored by Punk.
As far as the overrun growth, Teenage Boys went from 2.7 to 3.0, Males 18-49 from 2.8 to 3.4 (so this Punk/Laurinaitis was very strong in this age group), Teenage girls went from 1.1 to 1.2 and Women 18-49 stayed at 1.2. Basically a strong Punk anchored final quarter only hit males and women didn't care, whereas with Cena you usually get across the board growth. Although with the two of them together wrestling you had drops across the board, with Teenage Boys dropping from 2.6 to 2.3, Men 18-49 from 3.0 to 2.8, Women teens from 2.0 to 1.9 and Women 18-49 from 1.4 to 1.2.