SmackDown was live for their WrestleMania fallout show for the first time in the history of the blue brand, and it paid off to the tune of the largest Tuesday night audience of 2017 for WWE.
2,885,000 viewers made the April 4 episode the third most viewed original program on cable, behind Bill O’Reilly and Tucker Carlson’s shows on Fox News. In rating among the 18-49 demographic, SmackDown won the night as usual with .98.
While both numbers are up from last week (and 2016’s post-’Mania numbers for a pre-taped show which aired on a Thursday night), they’re not the same percentage increases Raw saw the night before - an indication of the flagship’s higher profile, fan burnout for a fifth straight night of big WWE programming, or both.
Next week, the “Superstar Shake-Up” should be a draw, and we’ll begin to see what Nakamura can do as a regular television presence - if he’s still on Team Blue, that is. While we ponder potential trades, here’s a list of the blue brand’s audiences this year:
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.