So is that a good rating?

In this day and age, it actually is.

The number 1 network on TV over the past couple of weeks has been CBS*.

During the week of July 13th CBS averaged 6.03 million viewers, while the week of the 19th CBS averaged 5.9 million viewers.

Now granted that number is spread out over the entire viewing day....so certainly there are some highly rated shows in there like "CSI" which will draw more than 5 million viewers, but on average you get 5 to 6 million sets of eyeballs watching CBS.

The USA Network has to be happy with the RAW number.

Actually 5 million viewers is right in line with the rest of the network TV averages:
ABC - 4.99 million viewers
NBC - 4.96 million viewers
FOX - 4.54 million viewers
CW - 1.09 million viewers

While I'm throwing out some ratings here, Smackdown which is about to land over on SyFy draws just over 1/2 of RAW's audience with 2.8 million viewers, and a rating of 1.8, slighlty better than the CW average.

So, what does all of this mean?

I haven't a clue.

But, since I should have some opinion I would say that RAW is pretty safe, and is still a wise investment for advertising dollars, with 2 hours a week, your reaching the equivalent number of eyeballs that CBS reaches in a given week.

I saw some ratings info posted on one of the discussions here regarding TNA. Considering they are on cable, and have carved out a solid little niche on Spike, they have to be pleased their rating has remained steady over the years, but they have to be worried that no matter what they do they simply can't pop that rating at all. And as said earlier, carrying the larger payroll of Hogan and Company without some sort of return on that investment has to hurt the bottom dollar.

*This is for total viewers, not broken down by demographics such as aged 18-49..if that were the case Fox would have won last week.