The January 4 episode of WWE Raw did an average 3.575 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research are reporting. That's a slight increase from the 3.536 million viewers in the last episode of 2015. The three hours were - Hour One: 3.707 million viewers Hour Two: 3.516 million viewers Hour Three: 3.503 million viewers The drop off in the hours could be viewed as a little disappointing, given the context of the main event, in which Roman Reigns was defending his WWE Championship against Sheamus, with Mr McMahon as the special referee. This week's episode was heavily promoted, with the title match, and also John Cena being pushed. There was also a probable bump based upon it being the first Raw of the new year, and fan expectations that the company would kick things off with a bang. While the gains in the end were slight, an increase is an increase, and WWE will be satisfied that they're under way with their Rumble build. However, with no NFL competition on Monday, maybe there had been expectation of a bigger number. Overall, Raw was number one for the night in viewership and number two for the night in the 18-49 demographic. The viewing pattern should see slight and steady increases throughout the next few months, with the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania season always provoking interest.
