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Last Friday, a holiday weekend kicked off here in the States, and a hockey game on network television gave sports fans something else to check out. As such, SmackDown had some of its worst overnight numbers since moving to FOX.
Bouncing back this week was key. Even in the typically slow summer, WWE’s hoping the return of road shows with fans will help push them to better ratings and viewership over the next couple months. They wouldn’t want to head into next week’s episode from Houston coming off two record lows.
According to Spoiler TV, they dodged that bullet. SmackDown averaged 1.881 million viewers off a first hour that drew 1.956 million, and a second hour that had 1.805 million watching. Final numbers tend to tick up, so it’s possible they’ll be over two million for the night when all is said and done.
The average rating among 18 - 49 year olds was .45, giving FOX the highest rated show on the networks last night.
Will the first night of fans in the seats help SmackDown more than it did Dynamite? We’ll find next week.
For complete results and the live blog for SmackDown this week click here. To read a review of the night’s events click here. For a full playlist of the show click here.