Smackdown Rating: Mahal vs. Styles beats last week’s rating by big percentage, but there’s more to story (w/Keller’s Analysis)

The Nov. 7 episode of WWE Smackdown on USA Network drew a 1.86 rating, in line with the 1.85 rating two weeks ago. Last week’s 1.53 was a bit of an aberration coming on Halloween and up against a high profile World Series game. The ten week rolling average headed into this week was a 1.73 rating, and the 2017 average so far is 1.75, so this week’s rating was above typical levels lately.

Keller’s Analysis: It’s up for debate whether a 1.86 rating for a show featuring A.J. Styles challenging Jinder Mahal for the WWE Title is enough of a ratings bump. What if WWE had built it up on Smackdown last week? It did get promoted on Raw the night before, not just on social media, so maybe they got most of the bump that could have, but perhaps a two week build would have led to a 2.0 rating. At this point, every rating counts more than usual as this is the last fall season WWE has to show what they can deliver to a TV station as they negotiate their next TV deal, which they plan to announce next summer.