How Was WWE RAW Viewership For The First 2018 Episode With Roman Reigns Vs. Samoa Joe, Brock Lesnar?

Monday's New Year's Day edition of WWE RAW, featuring WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar returning for a brawl with Kane as the main event segment, drew 2.865 million viewers. This is up 6% from last week's 2.703 million viewers for the final episode of 2017, which took place on Christmas. RAW also featured Samoa Joe vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns advertised ahead of time.

For this week's show, the first hour drew 2.969 million viewers, the second hour drew 2.912 million viewers and the final hour drew 2.714 million viewers.

RAW was #10 for the night in viewership, behind 8 airings related to college football on ESPN and SportsCenter. RAW was also #10 for the night in the 18-49 demographic, behind college football and SportsCenter. College football dominated the night with with more than 80 million viewers total.

Below is our 2018 RAW Viewership Tracker:

January 1st Episode: 2.865 million viewers
January 8th Episode:

2017 Total: 156.971 million viewers
2017 Average: 3.018 million viewers per episode