'Raw’ Special Pushes USA To Best Monday Night Since 2000

The Dec. 10 special edition of WWE Monday Night Raw helped USA Network pin its best Monday night primetime performance in more than seven years.

The grappling group’s three-hour 15th anniversary show pinned a 4.1 household average, translating into nearly 5.8 million viewers on average from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Dec 10, according to Nielsen Media Research data. Included within that total: 2.93 million 18-to-49 viewers.

USA officials said the total viewership and average delivery with that key demo was the network’s best since Sept. 11, 2000, the second to last week before the Raw franchise moved to Spike TV.

The 15th anniversary show also ranked as the top Raw special on USA ever among total viewers, persons 18 to 49 and adults 25 to 54 (2.61 million of those watchers), beating the “Homecoming” show upon the series return to the “characters” network in 2005.

In the 8 p.m. hour, network officials said USA outpaced both Fox and ABC among males 18 to 49, and bested Fox and CW among the 18-to-49 set and persons 25 to 54 in the 9 p.m. hour At 10 p.m. USA was ahead of ABC among persons18 to 49 and beat all broadcast networks with males 18 to 49, according to network officials.