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It’s a mark SmackDown’s been shooting for since last July’s draft. And we now know they can do it - provided there’s some sort of “Superstar Shake-Up” involved.
3,105,000 viewers tuned in to see who joined Team Blue from Raw during night two of Vince McMahon’s roster realignment on April 11, the second biggest audience since SmackDown went live on Tuesdays last Summer. The biggest, of course, was forJuly 19, 2016’s draft, when 3.17 million tuned in to USA Network. The “Shake-Up” episode was the second most-watched show on cable, behind Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor”, and won the night as usual among 18 - 49 year olds.
Fan excitement for Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan’s new line-up seems higher than in was for their post-draft roster, which people grew to love, but it took a few weeks. While we wonder if the Kevin Owens & Charlotte Flair-led version will perform better straight out of the gate, here’s a list of the blue brand’s audiences this year:
April 4 - 2.89 million
March 29 - 2.7 million
March 21 - 2.65 million
March 14 - 2.63 million
March 7 - 2.74 million
February 28 - 2.57 million
Feb. 21 - 2.79 million
Feb. 14 - 2.63 million
Feb. 7 - 2.63 million
Jan. 31 - 2.82 million
Jan. 24 - 2.56 million
Jan. 17 - 2.65 million
Jan. 10 -2.53 million
Jan. 3 - 2.59 million
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.