WWE News: SmackDown Live viewership slightly down while rating stays the same
What’s the story?
As per Showbuzz Daily, this week's SmackDown Live’s viewership numbers are down 4% from last week, while the ratings stayed the same.
In case you didn't know...
SmackDown Live this week primarily centred around AJ Styles’ assault on Shane McMahon and the circumstances following the assault that led to Shane McMahon making a match between himself and The Phenomenal One at WrestleMania.
The main event between American Alpha and The Usos was constantly interrupted by scenes of Shane McMahon walking towards the entrance, thus devaluing the match. It was the first time American Alpha had been on SmackDown Live for a few weeks, which is quite surprising since they are the SmackDown Tag Team Champions.
The heart of the matter
The latest edition of SmackDown Live got 2.628 million in viewership numbers, 0.89 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is down 4% from last week's viewership number of 2.738 million. However, it should be noted that the rating remained at 0.89 from the previous week.
One of the other notable segments during the episode of SmackDown Live was the official announcement of a mixed tag match for WrestleMania between John Cena & Nikki Bella against The Miz & Maryse. Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt furthered their storyline as well.
There appears to be only two matches left to be officially announced for WrestleMania: Dean Ambrose vs. Baron Corbin for the Intercontinental Championship, and American Alpha vs. The Usos.
What’s next?
WWE’s blue brand will march on with only two more episodes left until WrestleMania. The viewership can definitely be expected to be higher since the days are inching closer to the showcase of the immortals.
Author’s take
The viewership has been steady for SmackDown Live, so a 4% drop won’t be too big for them. It is more than likely that they will bounce back next week with better ratings. WWE will now look to further increase SmackDown Live’s viewership.
Many fans have praised SmackDown Live for being the superior show of the two, but the viewership has yet to reflect that number except for the final episode of 2016.
Hopefully, 2017 will be a better year for the blue brand, where they will have an influx of stars that will help further improve the viewership rather than hurt it, like was the case with the previous brand split, where WWE took successful SmackDown stars and put them on RAW to help viewership.
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