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Because of a snowstorm that was set to blanket the northeast, causing travel restrictions, WWE was forced to cancel its Tuesday night SmackDown taping in Boston and run a live show on Thursday night in Hartford, Connecticut instead.
And for the third week in a row, viewers were up.
Indeed, this week's episode, featuring all the fallout from the Royal Rumble pay-per-view (PPV) this past Sunday night in Philadelphia, garnered 2.95 million viewers, up from 2.81 million last week.
Here are the numbers so far this year, with Jan. 15 marking the move back to Thursday nights:
Jan. 2: 2.58 million
Jan. 9: 2.43 million
Jan. 15: 2.67 million
Jan. 22: 2.81 million
Jan. 29: 2.95 million
Next week should be a strong indicator of whether or not WWE can expect continued growth or if the numbers will level out.
For complete results from SmackDown click here. For a recap of all the night's action click here. To watch highlights of the show click here.