Smackdown Rating: Superstar Shake-up leads to ratings surge, bigger for Smackdown than Raw (w/Keller’s Analysis)

Last night’s episode of WWE Smackdown Live on USA Network drew a 2.14 rating based on live and same night DVR viewership. That is a leap from the post-WrestleMania rating of 2.02 and is the highest rating since the roster split and easily the highest Smackdown rating in years. It’s well above the ten week rolling average of 1.87. Total viewership was 3.1 million.

It still came up short of the 2.35 rating Raw drew the night before, but is the closest Smackdown has been to Raw in the ratings in a while.

The ratings increase for Smackdown was 0.27 above the rolling ten week average headed into this week, well above the  0.08 increase in Raw’s rating Monday night compared to its rolling ten week average headed into this week.

The 2017 average for Smackdown so far is 1.87 compared to a 2016 average through this week last year of 1.76. A year ago this week, Smackdown drew a 1.70 rating.

Keller’s Analysis: That’s a relatively big leap for Smackdown compared to their ten week rolling average headed into this week. It shows there was interest in the Superstar Shake-up. The question now is whether the additions of Kevin Owens, Charlotte, Sami Zayn, New Day, Rusev & Lana, and Shinsuke Nakamura, among others, since WrestleMania will lead to more viewers for Smackdown, or will the departures of Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, Alexa Bliss, and Miz, among others, offset any increase in interest. Next week’s rating will very likely drop back to the normal range, but perhaps they will remain above the 2017 average if the shake-up has stirred sustainable interest.