WWE SmackDown falls below two million viewers this week

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Paul Fontaine | @PaulAceFontaine | Dec 5, 2018 2:26 pm


Following a night in which Raw had a modern-era record-low number of viewers, SmackDown followed suit and had only 1.948 million viewers on Tuesday night. Other than election night in 2016, this was the only time SmackDown has gone below the two-million mark since going live on Tuesday nights.

This shouldn't have been unexpected, however, as SmackDown retained the usual 85 percent of Raw's viewership, so this seems to have more to do with the low Raw number than anything on SmackDown. But there was clearly nothing on Tuesday's episode that compelled a larger-than-usual percentage of Raw viewers to tune in.

SmackDown finished just 14th in total viewers on cable, and the show almost always finishes in the top 10. In the 18-49 demo, where SmackDown usually has the highest rating, the show finished third with a 0.66 rating.

Year-over-year, SmackDown was down almost 22 percent over the same week in 2017, the second-worst drop since the brand split.