WWE News: Big viewership increase for Smackdown Live

The new Smackdown Live logo

Many years ago, during the first brand split, Smackdown had lesser number of talents but utilized them so well that Smackdown was getting better critical acclaim than Raw. It was Smackdown that featured wrestlers such as Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Randy Orton, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit and many others, who reached their stride as performers.

In fact, it is said that it became so good that Raw had to take superstars from Smackdown. In an interview before Summerslam, John Cena himself said that one of the pride points of his first run in Smackdown was that he and the locker room did so well that Raw had to poach their superstars.

Going into the second brand split this year, it was well expected that those who were drafted to Smackdown Live would benefit greatly. Some of the names that were drafted who people knew would benefit are AJ Styles, Becky Lynch, Bray Wyatt and Apollo Crews to name a few. The best part about Smackdown Live is that it is a 2-hour format, so not only is it far easier to watch, but the quality is able to become consistent, and stars are not overexposed like they are on Raw. 

That was the biggest issue pre-brand extension. The stars were too overexposed, appearing on multiple segments on Raw and then on Smackdown as well. This has improved significantly, but Smackdown Live has definitely got the better deal of it. Post-draft, only week one was considered by most to be in favour of Raw. The next four weeks saw Samckdown Live defeating Raw in terms of quality, if not ratings.

However, that has changed drastically this week. This week, Smackdown Live seems to have defeated Raw in the ratings as well. It is not surprising as Smackdown Live has easily been the more consistent show of the two, and the blue brand is getting more critical acclaim from the fans. It wouldn’t be a shock to see Smackdown Live get better ratings more consistently than the red brand from here on.

Last night's live WWE SmackDown, featuring the fallout from SummerSlam and the reveal of the new SmackDown Women's Title and SmackDown Tag Team Titles, drew 2.714 million viewers. This is up 12% from last week's show, which drew 2.471 million viewers and faced competition from the Olympics.

SmackDown was #3 for the night in viewership, behind The Have & Have Nots and The O'Reilly Factor, and #1 in the 18-49 demographic.