WWE News: SmackDown Viewership decreases following WWE Super ShowDown
What's the Story?
WWE SmackDown Live followed up Raw's decline in viewership with a decrease of their own as the blue brand dropped below two million viewers once again.
The June 11 episode of SmackDown averaged 1.90 million viewers; down 113,000 from last week's episode on June 4 per ShowBuzzDaily.
In Case You Didn't Know...
SmackDown was the number one ranked show for Tuesday Night Cable, beating every program in the 18-49 demographic ratings, but the viewership still declined.
This week's show featured five matches including the main event with Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods of The New Day defeating Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
The Heart of the Matter
SmackDown was down 11 percent from last week's episode which averaged 2.016 million views and featured the return of The Undertaker and WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg making his debut on the program.
Compared to last year, the blue brand was down 13 percent from the June 12 episode which was headlined by a 10-woman tag team match between Asuka, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Lana and Naomi against the team of Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Carmella, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce.
Following the pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia, SmackDown spent most of the show building towards the next pay-per-view, WWE Stomping Grounds with Heavy Machinery pursuing the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and Ziggler meeting the WWE Champion in the main event.
The biggest criticism coming out of this week's episode was the screen time of Shane McMahon, who was featured in the first 30 minutes of the show.
This criticism comes four days removed from McMahon's victory against Roman Reigns at WWE Super ShowDown, and continued the SmackDown Commissioner's winning streak since WrestleMania.
SmackDown has fallen below two million viewers six times since 2019 began, generating the lowest viewed episodes since the show moved to Tuesday nights on July 19, 2016.
What's Next?
The upcoming SmackDown episode will be the go-home show for WWE Stomping Grounds which will air on the WWE Network on Sunday June 23.
SmackDown will be largely unaffected by most of Raw's viewership problems and competition for the remainder of their tenure on USA Network.