SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
The Sept. 24 WWE Smackdown Live, the final Tuesday episode on USA Network, drew a 1.53 rating. That is a notch above last week’s 1.52 and nearly even with every rating in August and September, which has averaged a 1.54 rating and had a narrow range of 1.50-1.57.
The last eight weeks have averaged a 1.54 rating, down from the same eight week period last year which averaged 1.62. The 2019 average is 1.51, down from last year’s averaged through this week of 1.70. The same eight week period two years ago averaged 1.77. Three years ago it the same period averaged 1.79. This year’s drop-off from the prior year in this time period is 0.19, nearly triple the 0.7 drop-off between 2017 and 2018, and nearly ten times the drop-off between 2016 and 2017.
Not soon enough, everything changes next week with a new network and new day, with massive support from Fox broadcast network, which Ad Age reports has drawn 20 new sponsors who have never purchased ads on WWE programming before.
Viewership was 2.099 million. By comparison, Raw’s third hour drew 2.044 million, a rare hour of Raw that drew less than Smackdown. Also of note, NXT on USA last week drew 1.179 million viewers.
Smackdown two years ago this week drew 1.73 and three years ago this week drew 1.69.
Smackdown topped table ratings for the night in the key 18-49 demographic with a 0.7 rating, followed by “Real Housewives of OC” on Bravo which drew a 0.5. The big night of political news led to increased competition from cable networks, with MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow” finishing fourth overall with a 0.4 demo rating and third most viewers overall for the night, beating Smackdown by 1.2 million viewers. “Hannity” on Fox drew a lower demo rating of 0.3, but more total viewers with 3.8 million total viewers.
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