The quarter-hour ratings for Monday’s Memorial Day Raw confirm that John Cena’s return segment and A.J. Styles’s confrontation saved the show and the third hour from historical low points.

The top-of-the-third-hour with Cena’s return and A.J. Styles’s confrontation/heel turn was the top-drawing segment of the night, easily topping the rest of the show.

The rest of the third hour fell off the table, but the impact was lessened by Cena-Styles at the top of the hour.

In the key males 18-49 demographic that we track, Styles-Cena drew 1.056 million viewers. The only other segment to top the 1.0-million mark was the top of the second hour with 1.016 million m18-49 viewers for Roman Reigns calling out Seth Rollins.

The show started off slow, following the typical Raw viewership pattern. A post-PPV episode, like Extreme Rules last week, draws the most interest at the start of the show, then viewership slowly drops off over the course of three hours.

On a typical Raw without a PPV lead-in, interest peaks in the middle of the show, then falls off hard in the third hour.

That was especially the case this week to the point where over-run viewership actually declined from the Q12 quarter-hour, exacerbated by Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Finals.

– The other interesting item was the Third Hour decline matching up.

Overall third hour viewership was 3.081 million, down 7.3 percent from 3.324 million in the second hour.

Males 18-49 viewership was 830,000 in the second hour, down 7.1 percent from 912,667 in the second hour.

May 30 Raw – Top Segments

(1) John Cena, then A.J. Styles (Q9 – top of the third hour).

(2) Roman Reigns-Seth Rollins WWE Title business (Q5 – top of the second hour).

And then some surprises…

(3) Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs. The Usos (Q4 – end of the first hour)

(4) Rusev vs. Zack Ryder and post-match with Titus O’Neil (Q6 – middle of the second hour)

The #2-4 rankings capture peak interest in the middle of the show before reaching ultimate peak in Q9 for the Cena-Styles segment.

***

PWTorch received a quarter-hour and minute-by-minute break down in the bellwether males 18-49 demographic…

May 30 Raw – M18-49 Break Down

OVERALL SHOW: 1.40 average rating / 870,000 average viewers

– Q1: 1.44 rating / 909,000 million viewers

The difference between a post-PPV and non-post-PPV Raw is captured by how Raw starts.

Last week post-Extreme Rules: 1.68 rating / 1.059 million viewers (#1 rank)
This week non-PPV: 1.44 rating / 909,000 viewers (#5 rank)

The segment’s content was debatably dreadful, but viewership climbed as the segment went on and maintained the peak. It appears viewers were enjoying the segment or waiting for something big to happen after a lot of talking…

8:10 p.m. – 981,000 viewers
8:11 p.m. – 1.022 million viewers
8:12 p.m. – 1.017 million viewers
8:13 p.m. – 1.034 million viewers
8:14 p.m. – 1.031 million viewers
8:15 p.m. – 1.023 million viewers (cross-over to Q2)
8:16 p.m. – 1.030 million viewers
8:17 p.m. – 1.020 million viewers (cut to break)

– Q2: 1.32 rating / 832,000 viewers (-8.5% from previous)

There were two commercial breaks dragging down the follow-up audience for the first-half of New Day vs. Vaudevillains.
The spill-over from Q1 kept the quarter-hour respectable.

– Q3: 1.43 rating / 900,000 viewers (+8.2%)

The segment had two solid peaks for The Club attacking New Day in the opening match vs. Vaudevillains, then after a break, another peak for Apollo Crews and Big Show backstage.

– Q4: 1.48 rating / 932,667 viewers (+3.6%)

There was only one commercial, as opposed to WWE typically putting two commercials in Q4, helping reverse the trend of Q4 typically falling from Q3.
The content of Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs. The Usos produced a decent peak.

FIRST HOUR: 1.42 average rating / 893,417 average viewers

– Q5: 1.61 rating / 1,016,000 viewers (+8.9%)

WWE World Hvt. champion Roman Reigns calling out Seth Rollins produced the #2-ranked segment of the show, following the pattern of peaks in Q5 and Q9.
The minute-by-minute break down:

8:59 p.m. – 1.043 million viewers
9:00 p.m. – 1.116 million viewers (cross-over to Q5)
9:01 p.m. – 1.156 million viewers
9:02 p.m. – 1.163 million viewers
9:03 p.m. – 1.154 million viewers
9:04 p.m. – 1.156 million viewers
9:05 p.m. – 1.142 million viewers
9:06 p.m. – 1.047 million viewers (cut to break)

– Q6: 1.46 rating / 919,000 viewers (-9.5%)

The follow-up segment took a blow, but had a three-minute peak in the middle of the quarter-hour for the end of Rusev vs. Zack Ryder and Titus O’Neil’s post-match involvement. Those three minutes helped the segment rank #4 on Raw, ahead of the opening segment.

– Q7: 1.41 rating / 891,000 viewers (-3.0%)

There were two commercial breaks dragging down the quarter-hour.
The actual content was Enzo & Big Cass calling out the Dudleys, leading to the first-half of their match. Their pre-match promo hit a nice three-minute peak in-between commercials.

– Q8: 1.31 rating / 825,467 viewers (-7.4%)

This marked three consecutive down quarters.
The audience did not come back for the second-half of the tag match at the same level as Q7.

SECOND HOUR: 1.45 average rating / 912,867 average viewers (+2.2% from First Hour)

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– Q9: 1.68 rating / 1,056,000 viewers (+27.9%)

This was the money segment of the show with John Cena’s return promo and cues to the audience that someone was going to interrupt for a confrontation.
The segment then peaked for A.J. Styles’s interruption and set-up for his heel turn.

9:59 p.m. – 950,000 viewers
10:00 p.m. – 952,000 viewers (cross-over to Q9)
10:01 p.m. – 952,000 viewers
10:02 p.m. – 957,000 viewers (last time under 1.0 million in Q9)
10:03 p.m. – 1.013 million viewers
10:04 p.m. – 1.055 million viewers
10:05 p.m. – 1.064 million viewers
10:06 p.m. – 1.026 million viewers
10:07 p.m. – 1.052 million viewers
10:08 p.m. – 1.084 million viewers
10:09 p.m. – 1.102 million viewers
10:10 p.m. – 1.137 million viewers
10:11 p.m. – 1.138 million viewers
10:12 p.m. – 1.104 million viewers
10:13 p.m. – 1.102 million viewers
10:14 p.m. – 1.099 million viewers
10:15 p.m. – 998,000 viewers (cross-over to Q10; cut to break)

– Q10: 1.28 rating / 807,000 viewers (-23.6%)

And the weekly exodus started. After Raw reached its natural conclusion in Q9, the show fell hard for the rest of the hour.
There were two commercial breaks and a quick Natalya vs. Dana Brooke match.

– Q11: 1.13 rating / 709,000 viewers (-12.1%)

The third hour exodus continued. Again, there were two commercial breaks and a quick Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin “match.”

– Q12: 1.19 rating / 709,000 viewers (+5.5%)

The plane nosed up for the end of the third hour for the first-half of the main event six-man tag match hyping the Money in the Bank ladder match.

THIRD HOUR: 1.32 average rating / 830,000 average viewers (-7.1% from second hour)

Notably, the overall viewership fell 7.3 percent from the second to third hour and m18-49 fell 7.1 percent from the second to third hour, aided by Cena-Styles lessening the Q10-12 decline.

– Q13 Over-Run: 1.17 rating / 735,222 viewers (-1.7% from Q12)

This was a rarity for Raw for the over-run to dip from Q12. It appears the combination of the NBA Playoffs game and nothing on the line in the throw-’em-together main event did not draw people in for the over-run.
The main event did not produce much movement…

10:59 p.m. – 747,000 viewers
11:00 p.m. – 747,000 viewers (cross-over to over-run)
11:01 p.m. – 729,000 viewers
11:02 p.m. – 757,000 viewers
11:03 p.m.- 787,000 viewers
11:04 p.m. – 821,000 viewers
11:05 p.m. – 899,000 viewers
11:06 p.m. – 882,000 viewers
11:07 p.m. – 552,000 viewers going off the air

OVERALL SHOW: 1.40 average rating / 870,000 average viewers