WWE SmackDown ratings way up for post-WrestleMania episode

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.f4wonline.com

By Paul Fontaine | @PaulAceFontaine | Apr 11, 2018 1:55 pm


Tuesday night's SmackDown recorded the highest audience total for the show since last year's Superstar Shakeup episode and the second highest since the original draft lottery.

This week's SmackDown averaged 2.952 million viewers. The audience was up nearly 20 percent from last week, but a fairer comparison would be the 2017 post-Mania episode -- which did 2.885 million. So, this year was up two percent from that mark.

SmackDown finished third for the night in terms of total viewers on cable but was first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.98 rating, 60 percent higher than their nearest competition, "The Last OG" on TBS.

It was notable that CBS ran repeats and NBC's "The Voice" aired a compilation episode, resulting in both of those networks having about half their usual audience totals. "Roseanne" was down from its first two weeks but still did almost 14 million viewers.

With the two draft/shakeup episodes having been the highest rated SmackDowns since the show moved to Tuesday nights, that would indicate that next Tuesday's number could be even higher than this week's was. The 2018 Superstar Shakeup will take place on both Raw and SmackDown next week.