By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE Smackdown on Friday, September 28 dropped to a 1.83 rating. It was the lowest rating since July 13, which was the week after Smackdown's most-recent live Tuesday night episode and Friday replay. The rating broke Smackdown's three-week streak of rounding to a 2.0 rating.

Smackdown averaged 2.63 million viewers, down eight percent from last week's average. Smackdown averaged its fewest viewers since August 24.

On cable TV Friday night, Smackdown ranked #2 in overall viewers behind "O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News. The show took the #1 ranking in all key male demos as well as overall adult viewers. UFC's Ultimate Fighter on FX averaged a mere 775,000 viewers, but ranked #3 in key male demos.

The big contributor to Smackdown's overall rating decline was a big drop in adults & males 18-49 viewers. Smackdown was down nearly two-tenths in a18-49 compared to last week, registering the lowest rating since the Olympics Opening Ceremony on July 27. Smackdown was down three-tenths of a rating in m18-49, registering its lowest rating for a first-run Friday episode since April 27.

Smackdown also took a hit among younger viewers. Males 12-34 was down to the lowest point since July 13, males 18-34 was down to the lowest point since June 8, and teen males 12-17 was down one-tenth of a rating compared to last week.

Caldwell's Analysis: Smackdown held up reasonably well during the first two months of Raw's three-hour run, but this week's show took a hit in the first possible sign of overall WWE viewer fatigue. It will be interesting to see if this turns into a trend with Smackdown staying in the 1.8-range during the fall.

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