SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor
It was the start of a new era for Smackdown following last week’s Live Smackdown/Draft Special that gave way to the first official week of Smackdown having its own audience…
WWE Smackdown TV Ratings Tracking
July 26: The first official Smackdown Live scored a 1.92 TV rating.
Smackdown drew 2.743 million viewers.
Last week’s Live Smackdown/Draft special scored a 2.20 rating and drew 3.170 million viewers. So, this week’s episode was off the pace by about 13 percent from last week’s TV special.
The rating & viewership compares to the premiere episode of Smackdown on USA Network back on January 7.
The switch from Syfy to USA scored a 1.93 rating and drew 2.757 million viewers, nearly identical to this week’s Week 1 brand split.
– DEMOGRAPHICS: Smackdown fell 23-31 percent from last week’s Live Smackdown/Draft special, much greater than the TV Rating and viewership.
But, the adults 18-49, males 18-34, and males 18-49 ratings were the second-highest of the year behind last week’s special.
The demos were also better than the Jan. 7 USA premiere episode.
Caldwell’s Analysis: If Week 1 could have grabbed a 2.0, USA and WWE would have been really pleased. Slightly below 2.0 to set the baseline for this new era is a fine start, but not in the ballpark of Raw, which opened with a 2.36 rating. Overall, Smackdown seemed to be missing a spark that Raw had on Monday.
Brand Split Wars – Week 1
- July 25 Raw: 2.36 rating / 3.338 million viewers
- July 26 SD: 1.92 rating / 2.743 million viewers
Let’s see what the unique propositions are
Raw: Tag Team Title, Women’s Title, Cruiserweights, wrestlers, commission/gm
SD: wrestlers, commissioner/gm
Why will the ratings go up?
I thought the first Smackdown after this brand split was pretty bad. Dolph Zigler going over Aj STyles? Hilarious. ZIggler has been slightly above jobber status for months. Does anyone believe he is going to win the title?