Post-Mania SmackDown ties highest viewership since WWE draft

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Paul Fontaine | @PaulAceFontaine | Apr 5, 2017 3:57 pm

The post-WrestleMania edition of SmackDown on the USA Network drew an audience of 2.885 million viewers, tying the highest viewership the show has done since the WWE draft.

It matched the final episode of 2016, which featured the return of John Cena after a lengthy absence and three title matches.

SmackDown finished third for the night in total viewers on cable, trailing The O'Reilly Factor and Tucker Carlson Tonight, both on Fox News. SmackDown did finish first in the 18-49 demo with a strong 0.98 rating.

The show didn't have quite the same bump after WrestleMania that Raw did on Monday night, as it was only up seven percent from last week's show while Raw was up over 14 percent. That was also the case on the SmackDown episodes following the Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, and SummerSlam, where there were big increases for the Raws following those pay-per-views but much smaller ones for SmackDown.

It is notable that ABC ran repeat programming opposite SmackDown on Tuesday night. Their ratings were down, which may have helped the SmackDown number slightly.