By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

The Friday night, November 12 episode of WWE Smackdown scored a 1.7 rating, down from a 1.8 rating the previous week.

Smackdown averaged 2.69 million viewers, which was down from the previous week's 2.77 million viewers and right in line with Smackdown's average on Syfy through seven weeks.

WWE advertised in advance World Hvt. champion Kane vs. Big Show, Edge vs. David Otunga involving Raw's Nexus group, and an Intercontinental Title match.

Despite the ratings and viewership decline, Smackdown scored well in key demographics. Most notably, Smackdown was the #1 show among males 18-49 on cable TV for the night, beating NBA and college football coverage on ESPN.

Also, Smackdown tied with the October 1 series premiere for its highest rating among adults 18-34 & males 18-34. In addition, Smackdown scored its second-highest rating among adults 18-49 & males 18-49.

The overall ratings decline can be found in soft viewership among younger teen viewers. Smackdown was down slightly among males 12-34 and had an 18 percent decline among males 12-17 compared to last week.

Caldwell's Analysis: A bit of a mixed bag for the most recent Smackdown, but Syfy will gladly take the #1 ranking among males 18-49 over ESPN programming. The show returned to the middle of the pack through seven weeks on Syfy and stopped the short ratings momentum last week. The demographics were strong despite some of the fickle younger audience tuning out for the show. Smackdown just isn't close to that 2.0 ratings level that was expected coming out of the gate despite WWE giving away some marquee match-ups yet again on Friday's show.

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