WWE Raw earned a 3.10 rating for the heavily hyped January 2 show. That is up from the 2.93 the previous week, and breaks the four week streak of sub 3.0 ratings.

The numbers are not without their problems. The show averaged 4.44 million viewers, down from the 4.46 million the week before, and the problem of losing viewers in the second hour continued as viewership dropped from 4.53 in the first hour to 4.34 in the second.

Shore's Slant: Raw did have stiff competition from college football bowl games and new programming on History Channel in the second hour. The sad part might be that a large chunk of viewers tuned out before Chris Jericho's big return. There has been enough buzz (or drama depending on your perspective) to inform those who tuned out, but will it be enough to help Raw overcome going head to head with the BCS Title game next week? This hits keep coming for Raw, and I fear we are due for a classic Vince McMahon overreaction.

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