WWE SmackDown ratings up slightly, still below two million viewers

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Paul Fontaine | @PaulAceFontaine | Dec 12, 2018 2:17 pm


Coming off another record-low Raw rating, SmackDown was actually up slightly this week. SmackDown rose one percent to 1.977 million viewers on Tuesday night.

Given that SmackDown had a higher-than-usual 90 percent audience retention from Monday's Raw, it would indicate a higher-than-usual interest in something on the show. This was likely either the Daniel Bryan vs. Mustafa Ali match to kick off the show or the WrestleMania rematch between Charlotte Flair and Asuka with Becky Lynch at ringside that closed the episode.

SmackDown did fall out of the top 10 in overall cable viewership for the second straight week, finishing 12th. SmackDown was also once again out of the top spot in the 18-49 demo, finishing in third place with a 0.68 rating.

Year-over-year, the audience fell over 20 percent for the second week in a row. This is the last week for original network programming, so there may be an artificial bump in ratings next week. Though with Christmas Day and New Year's Day both falling on a Tuesday this year, it would be expected that SmackDown would have record lows on those weeks.

[cero2k]

related unrelated

From today's WON:

The top ten most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week were: 1. Edge & Christian Show from 12/10; 2. NXT from 12/5; 3. Starrcade special; 4. Survivor Series; 5. Edge & Christian show from 12/3; 6. NXT U.K. from 12/5; 7. NXT Takeover War Games; 8. Mixed Match Challenge from 12/4; 9. WWE 365 on A.J. Styles; 10. NXT U.K. from 12/5 (a second episode). 205 Live was down to 17th place

[KILLdozer]

Well I wanna say SD and RAW aren't up immediately so...lol

[Big Red Machine]

related unrelated

From today's WON:

The top ten most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week were: 1. Edge & Christian Show from 12/10; 2. NXT from 12/5; 3. Starrcade special; 4. Survivor Series; 5. Edge & Christian show from 12/3; 6. NXT U.K. from 12/5; 7. NXT Takeover War Games; 8. Mixed Match Challenge from 12/4; 9. WWE 365 on A.J. Styles; 10. NXT U.K. from 12/5 (a second episode). 205 Live was down to 17th place

How the hell does Edge & Christian's goofball show beat the monthly PPV?
Also, if Starrcade beat Survivor Series, then hopefully WWE will take the hint that this Survivor Series format SUCKS.

[KILLdozer]

related unrelated

From today's WON:

The top ten most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week were: 1. Edge & Christian Show from 12/10; 2. NXT from 12/5; 3. Starrcade special; 4. Survivor Series; 5. Edge & Christian show from 12/3; 6. NXT U.K. from 12/5; 7. NXT Takeover War Games; 8. Mixed Match Challenge from 12/4; 9. WWE 365 on A.J. Styles; 10. NXT U.K. from 12/5 (a second episode). 205 Live was down to 17th place

How the hell does Edge & Christian's goofball show beat the monthly PPV?
Also, if Starrcade beat Survivor Series, then hopefully WWE will take the hint that this Survivor Series format SUCKS.

Reaks of awesomeness...duh lol.

[Bob-O]

How the hell does Edge & Christian's goofball show beat the monthly PPV?

Weekly TV from Developmental beat the main roster PPV lol... I feel like that should be a big deal in a boardroom somewhere...

Is that Edge and Christian's podcast, or do they have a different show?

[Bob-O]

205 Live was down to 17th place

That's a shame. Hopefully they do more stuff like Mustafa/Bryan to raise a little awareness/relevance. I love the show, but I can't help but feeling like I'm watching something irrelevant.. like that all women's season of NXT that went on forever.

[KILLdozer]

205 Live was down to 17th place

That's a shame. Hopefully they do more stuff like Mustafa/Bryan to raise a little awareness/relevance. I love the show, but I can't help but feeling like I'm watching something irrelevant.. like that all women's season of NXT that went on forever.

Yeah. 205 Live just didn't feel like it had the same presence to me as the other shows for some reason. It just didn't quite have "it". Idk what it was.

[Bob-O]

Personally, even though I love great wrestling which 205 delivers in spades, I know that this is it for these guys. This is as far as they're going to go. They're not going to be featured, nobody on that show is going to become a huge star, NOTHING is going to come of whatever they're doing. No matter how many times they steel the show on PPV, they'll get swept back under the rug afterward.

Say what you will about WCW and Russo and all that, I really miss how they managed their bloated roster, especially the cruiserweights. They had their own division, sure, but they all had endearing personalities and were meshed right into Nitro and PPV's. Not forced, never felt like a formality, they were a seamless part of the night's entertainment. I miss that.

Even just little things would help! Mustafa/Bryan was a great start! I really liked the angle in WCW where Hall and Nash always made sure Syxx didn't lose the belt. I wouldn't mind seeing them do the same sort of thing with Lio Rush and Lashley...

[Big Red Machine]

205 Live was down to 17th place

That's a shame. Hopefully they do more stuff like Mustafa/Bryan to raise a little awareness/relevance. I love the show, but I can't help but feeling like I'm watching something irrelevant.. like that all women's season of NXT that went on forever.

Yeah. 205 Live just didn't feel like it had the same presence to me as the other shows for some reason. It just didn't quite have "it". Idk what it was.

Dozer doesn't think that WWE's show that is more Gabe Sapolsky than Vince McMahon has "it." Who could have seen that coming?

[KILLdozer]

Cruiserweight classic felt similar. I just had trouble getting into it because it felt so much different. Mae Young Classics were great though.

[Big Red Machine]

Cruiserweight classic felt similar. I just had trouble getting into it because it felt so much different. Mae Young Classics were great though.

So basically Dozer doesn't like wrestling-based tournaments with clean finishes and competent announcing.

[KILLdozer]

Hey! Brm said "Gabe Sapolsky"!

WHO COULD'VE SEEN THAT COMING?!?

[cero2k]

Cruiserweight classic felt similar. I just had trouble getting into it because it felt so much different. Mae Young Classics were great though.

how the hell did the CWC feel different but not the MYC? it's all the same WWE corporate spill.

[KILLdozer]

Cruiserweight classic felt similar. I just had trouble getting into it because it felt so much different. Mae Young Classics were great though.

how the hell did the CWC feel different but not the MYC? it's all the same WWE corporate spill.

The CWC just felt...dry to me or something. Almost like the production value or something just wasn't there. Maybe it was slow building but it seemed very quiet in the early matches.

[Big Red Machine]

Cruiserweight classic felt similar. I just had trouble getting into it because it felt so much different. Mae Young Classics were great though.

how the hell did the CWC feel different but not the MYC? it's all the same WWE corporate spill.

The CWC just felt...dry to me or something. Almost like the production value or something just wasn't there. Maybe it was slow building but it seemed very quiet in the early matches.

That's what I felt about the MYC, always being forced into four matches per episode. The Cruiserweight Classic was much more free-form.

[KILLdozer]

how the hell did the CWC feel different but not the MYC? it's all the same WWE corporate spill.

The CWC just felt...dry to me or something. Almost like the production value or something just wasn't there. Maybe it was slow building but it seemed very quiet in the early matches.

That's what I felt about the MYC, always being forced into four matches per episode. The Cruiserweight Classic was much more free-form.

Yeah, they did a lot of matches with short amounts of time...yet the tournament still seemed very long...

[cero2k]

Yeah, they did a lot of matches with short amounts of time...yet the tournament still seemed very long...

I don't think the casual WWE fan has the attention span to watch a 2/3 day tournament like King of the Ring, let alone a BOLA. They have to simplify it as much as possible.

[Big Red Machine]

Yeah, they did a lot of matches with short amounts of time...yet the tournament still seemed very long...

I don't think the casual WWE fan has the attention span to watch a 2/3 day tournament like King of the Ring, let alone a BOLA. They have to simplify it as much as possible.

But it's not casuals who are showing up at Full Sail. And the tournaments themselves were released one a week, so that shouldn't be an issue.

[cero2k]

Yeah, they did a lot of matches with short amounts of time...yet the tournament still seemed very long...

I don't think the casual WWE fan has the attention span to watch a 2/3 day tournament like King of the Ring, let alone a BOLA. They have to simplify it as much as possible.

But it's not casuals who are showing up at Full Sail. And the tournaments themselves were released one a week, so that shouldn't be an issue.

thus the people live enjoyed it, but Dozer is saying the tournament felt too long, likely because it was episodic with only a few matches per episode. It wasn't an issue for the casuals, those tournaments have been success for WWE, just not for dozer.