Smackdown Rating: Despite big political news creating competition, Smackdown finishes atop cable ratings in key demo, best rating in months

This week’s episode of WWE Smackdown Live (8-21) drew a 1.72 rating, the best rating since Apr. 24, likely related to the interest in the fallout from Summerslam. Last week’s rating was 1.55, which was barely above the 2018 low-mark of 1.53. The ten-week rolling average headed into this week was 1.57. The 2018 average is 1.70.

This week’s rating helped boost Smackdown to the best average rating for a month since April, although next week’s show could change that.

Last year this week Smackdown drew a 1.89 rating, and two years ago a 1.92 rating, so this year’s rating is a significant percentage below prior levels.

Smackdown finished first in the Tuesday night cable rankings among the key targeted demo of 18-49 year olds with a 0.8 rating. Smackdown drew 2,437,000 viewers overall. The no. 2 ranked shows finished with 0.5 ratings in that demo. MTV’s “Challenge: Final Reckoning” finished no. 2, but only scored 844,000 viewers overall. However, the no. 3 ranked show in the key demo, “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, drew 3,893,000 viewers, easily the top rated show of the night, with “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” coming in no. 2, buoyed by the Paul Manafort jury verdict and Michael Cohen news. Smackdown finished no. 6 in total viewers for the evening.

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