SmackDown Live ratings (Oct. 25, 2016): Big sports night leads to lowest rating since brand split

WWE knew that going up against the start of one of the most highly anticipated World Series’ match-ups in recent baseball memory and the opening night of the new NBA season was a big challenge. It likely played a role in their announcing so many fairly high-stakes match-ups for SmackDown Live in advance.

Turns out it didn’t help a whole lot, as the blue brand drew its lowest numbers since the brand split back in July.

2,127,000 people tuned into USA Network at 8PM, down more than 10% from Oct. 18, when 2,405,000 viewers watched SmackDown. In terms of ratings share among 18 - 49 year olds, this Tuesday’s episode dropped to .69 from the past two weeks when that number was just above or below .80.

That’s largely because in addition to being behind the usual cadre of Fox News shows, SmackDown was eighth on cable for the night thanks to two nationally televised basketball games... then factor in that more than 19,000,000 people were watching the Indians beat the Cubs on Fox in the second most watched World Series’ game one of the last decade.

NBA fever won’t be as high next week, but WWE faces a potential Game 6 from the baseball final and election coverage will be building toward its crescendo the following Tuesday, so growing these numbers will be a big undertaking.

For complete results and the live blog for SmackDown this week click here. To read a complete recap & review of all the night’s events click here. For a full playlist of the show click here.