How Did The First WWE SmackDown Live Of The Draft Era Do In The Ratings?
Down from last week but better than the usual, you could give the show a B+.
The ratings are in for Tuesday's SmackDown Live, and the first bluebrand show of the post-draft era brought in a total of 2.743 million viewers. This number is down from the draft show the week before, which raked in an impression 3.170 million pairs of eyes.
SmackDown Live finished at number 10 for viewership on Tuesday, sitting behind various different coverage of the Democratic National Convention and a show called 'The Haves and Have Nots', which Wikipedia tells me is an American soap opera set in Georgia.
Tuesday's show, which was headlined by a six-pack challenge for a WWE Championship shot at SummerSlam, fared much better in the 18-49 demographic, where it came second behind CNN's coverage of the DNC.
Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan can take heart from this however, as there was always going to be a drop from the intriguing show (on paper) that aired last week. This week's number is way up on the final taped SmackDown, which was seen by 2.068m people.
SmackDown's ratings over the coming weeks will be worth keeping an eye on, as Mick Foley has confirmed in a recent blog that the competition between the two brands in WWE is genuine. Right now however, you could probably give SmackDown Live a solid B+.