WWE Smackdown takes a huge viewership hit for Fourth of July weekend episode, lower than year-ago viewership totals

The July 3 episode of WWE Friday Night Smackdown drew fewer than 1.8 million viewers for both the first hour and second hour, well below usual. The Fourth of July holiday weekend surely affected viewership.

Smackdown’s 18-49 key demo rating dropped to 0.4, down from 0.5. It finished behind Dateline NBC which drew a 0.5. Every other broadcast network show drew 0.4 or 0.3.

Last week’s Smackdown drew 2.174 million viewers. It was the third straight week Smackdown drew more than 2 million viewers each hour. Only three times total has Smackdown drawn less than 2 million viewers on Fox.

One year ago, the July 2 episode drew 1.980 million and the July 7 episode drew 1.853 million. Last year Smackdown didn’t air as part of what would be considered part of the holiday weekend.

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