The WWE SmackDown viewership numbers are in for the March 17 episode and they showed an improvement this week over last week's broadcast (though still below what the show drew on March 3). This has to be considered a positive for WWE considering SmackDown aired on St. Patrick's Day. The number of people who go out to celebrate the holiday on March 17 is astronomical, so the fact that WWE drew more viewers this week than last is impressive. SmackDown garnered 2.260 million viewers this week. Last week's show, which was the lowest viewership drawn by WWE since SmackDown moved to the USA Network, pulled in 2.186 million viewers. This week's show featured an outstanding match between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles; a match that many people hoped would be a highlighted bout this year at WrestleMania 32. If their match on SmackDown this week was any indication, perhaps it should have been in the plans for Dallas. The cable broadcast rating earned for SmackDown on Thursday was a 1.71, also up from last week's broadcast rating of 1.64. This means that 1.71% of Americans who have access to the USA Network and were watching TV during the hours the show aired on Thursday night were tuned into WWE. SmackDown finished the evening as the seventh most watched show on cable television, being bested by two NCAA tournament college basketball games, Flip or Flop, Hannity, The Kelly File, and The OReilly Factor.
