WWE brought back a pair of legends for their two nights in Madison Square Garden this week. Stone Cold Steve Austin couldn’t keep Raw from dropping to a near-record low television audience the night before. Could The Undertaker fare much better on SmackDown LIVE?
The blue brand’s audience of 2,061,000 wasn’t historically low or anything. It’s been worse as recently as July of this year. But that is a not-nice drop of approximately 69K from last week. And WWE didn’t have competition from the NFL to deal with on Tues., Sept. 10.
SmackDown was the seventh most watched cable original on the night, behind two MSNBC and five Fox News shows. It did win the night on cable with a .62 share of the overall 18-49 year old demographic, but that was also down from last week - and the lowest number since July.
WWE’s counting on Superstars from yesteryear like Taker to help pop a big number when SmackDown debuts on Fox in less than a month. Should this week’s numbers cause them to rethink that strategy?
While you ponder that, here’s a rundown of their Tuesday night numbers for the past six months:
Sept. 3 - 2.13 million / .65
Aug. 27 - 2.09 / .64
Aug. 20 - 2.14 / .68
Aug. 13 - 2.16 / .67
Aug. 6 - 2.09 / .63
July 30 - 1.91 / .57
July 23 - 2.16 / .65
July 16 - 2.12 / .65
July 9 - 1.85 million / .53
July 2 - 1.89 / .56
June 25 - 1.92 / .62
June 18 - 1.86 / .56
June 11 - 1.93 million / .60
June 4 - 2.02 / .60
May 28 - 2.07 / .69
May 21 - 1.98 / .61
May 14 - 1.83 / .56
May 7 - 1.93 / .58
April 30 - 1.83 / .54
April 23 - 2.07 / .71
April 16 - 2.22 / .74
April 9 - 2.2 / .78
April 2 - 2.14 / .71
Mar. 26 - 2.39 / .79
Mar. 19 - 2.21 / .74
Mar. 12 - 2.2 / .71
Mar. 5 - 2.16 / .7
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.
Source: Showbuzz Daily