WWE News: SmackDown Live viewership ahead of WWE TLC revealed
What's the story?
This week's episode of SmackDown Live was an important one for the blue brand, as it was the go home show ahead of TLC. As luck would have it, they scored a 1.5% increase in viewership.
Unfortunately, this was not enough to get them past the 2 million viewers mark. This was the second lowest viewership figure for a first run, non-holiday episode, as per Wrestling Inc.
In case you didn't know...
Both RAW and SmackDown Live have had some poor viewership scores ahead of TLC. This could stem from the fact that big stars like Lesnar and Strowman have been missing from RAW, whereas SmackDown Live's episodes haven't been the strongest.
This week's show had Mustafa Ali from 205 Live take on WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in a singles match. It also had a WrestleMania rematch between Charlotte Flair and Asuka in the main event. Other highlights included a rap battle and Shane McMahon teaming up with The Miz to take on a team of random enhancement talent.
The heart of the matter
Last week's viewership for SmackDown Live was 1.948 million viewers, which was the second lowest viewership for the blue brand on Tuesday nights. This week was a marginal increase as SmackDown Live netted a total of 1.977 million viewers only.
This is a disheartening figure for SmackDown Live, a brand that has been suffering from a lack of interest in the product. Even though many have dubbed the blue brand the stronger of the two shows, somehow, the viewership does not reflect this. One expects the viewership to pick up as we head into Royal Rumble season in weeks to come.
What's next?
Next week's episode will be the fallout show after TLC. Expect a slight rise in viewership, as is natural on such nights. WWE needs to find a way to keep the viewership consistently high in the following weeks.
Why do you think the viewership was low ahead of the TLC pay-per-view? Let us know in the comments below.