WWE News: SmackDown Live's viewership drops to new all-time low
What's the Story?
WWE's pre-recorded episode of SmackDown Live couldn't maintain the low numbers from last week's show and set a new record for the lowest viewed episode of all time.
The May 14 edition of SmackDown averaged 1.82 million and was down 104,000 fans from the previous week per ShowBuzzDaily.
In Case You Didn't Know...
SmackDown opened with Roman Reigns inviting The Miz back to the show before Shane McMahon, Elias, Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan tried to attack them.
The Usos made the save and McMahon would book a seven-man handicap match between Reigns & The Usos against himself, Elias, Bryan and Rowan that went up against the NBA playoff game on TNT.
The Heart of the Matter
Basketball dominated Tuesday night cable with game one of the NBA Playoffs between the Golden State Warriors and the Portland Trailblazers on TNT and the NBA Draft Lottery on ESPN.
SmackDown was the sixth highest viewed program on cable averaging 1.827 million viewers. This week's episode was down 5 percent from the May 7 episode that averaged 1.93 million and set a new record for the lowest viewed episode of SmackDown in WWE History.
The NBA Lottery started 30 minutes after SmackDown began and was around the time the fatal four way match between Andrade, Ali, Finn Balor and Randy Orton started.
The Warriors-Trailblazers game started as SmackDown head into the second hour when the seven-man handicap match took place.
Compared to 2018, this week's episode was down 20 percent from last year's episode on May 15 that featured the debut of Andrade & Zelina and a non-title match between Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles.
What's Next?
Raw's viewership increased by 105,000 viewers, so the decrease of 104,000 viewers means nearly all the fans who tuned in for the flagship show decided not to tune in for the Blue Brand's episode.
The May 21 edition of SmackDown will go head-to-head with game four of the NBA Playoffs between the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors.