After months of SmackDown’s ratings declining, the debut of the WWE ThunderDome last week put the show’s ratings above 2 million average viewers for the first time since June. This weel the SmackDown return of Roman Reigns was expected to see a further significant increase; however, the overnight ratings show the average viewership was 2.186 million, up just 0.8%, which is only an extra 18,000 fans watching.
In the demos, which are essential to advertisers, SmackDown averaged a 0.3 in the 18-34 category down 14.3% from last week. In the key 18-49 category, the show did 0.6, which matches last week’s number.
While the overall number being up is always positive, it’s unlikely WWE will be pleased. They had no competition from the NBA, it was the post SummerSlam episode, and featured arguably their biggest stars first television appearance in several months. It should be noted that these are overnight ratings, so they are subject to change, but usually, the disparity is not much.
