WWE News: SmackDown Live viewership increases after Hell in a Cell Show
What’s the story?
The fallout from the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view led to a big increase in SmackDown’s viewership with an average of 2.467 million viewers tuning in.
In case you didn’t know...
This week’s episode of SmackDown Live featured a United States Championship rematch between Baron Corbin and AJ Styles, Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin becoming the No.1 Contenders for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and Sami Zayn revealing the reason behind saving Kevin Owens from Shane McMahon’s elbow drop at Hell in a Cell.
The heart of the matter
WWE Champion Jinder Mahal was absent from programming, but that had no negative effect on viewership as SmackDown got a boost without the presence of the Modern Day Maharaja.
Last week’s SmackDown averaged 2.323 million, the lowest viewership since the 4th of July episode. And while this week’s numbers were up by 144,000 views, they were still low compared to the previous weeks.
This week’s episode of SmackDown was the second lowest viewership for the month of October and the lowest number since August.
However, the Oct. 10, 2017, edition of SmackDown was also up 19,000 viewers from the Oct. 11, 2016, episode which averaged 2.448 million viewers.
What’s Next?
With the WWE Champion absent from programming, it’s highly likely that the next few weeks will be used to name a new No.1 Contender. The rumours point to AJ Styles challenging Mahal and would mark the first time since the SmackDown (following the Elimination Chamber) that the Phenomenal One received a title opportunity.
Another rumor that may play out over the next few weeks is the rumored Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team match between Shane McMahon’s Team and Kevin Owens team.
If McMahon picks most of the big stars from SmackDown like Nakamura, Styles and Randy Orton then there’s a chance that the next WWE Championship match could take place on SmackDown Live rather than Survivor Series.
Author’s Take
SmackDown Live has more than a month until the Survivor Series pay-per-view, so there’s a strong chance a lot of big matches will occur on television in the coming weeks. As far as the viewership is concerned, it is good to see that the numbers are increasing every week. We hope that the Blue Brand will strive to maintain these figures.