WWE SmackDown on FOX TV Ratings Drop 25 Percent This Week

WWE SmackDown on FOX saw its ratings take a dip this week, the second broadcast of the show on the network.

According to Showbuzz Daily, SmackDown drew 2.899 million viewers this week. That viewership consisted of 2.925 million viewers for the first hour and 2.872 million viewers for the second hour of the broadcast. This was down quite a bit from last week's show, which saw total viewership of 3.869 million viewers (3.920 million hour one, 3.818 million hour two).

In the key ratings demographic of 18-49 year old viewers, SmackDown was also down this week, though it still ranked as number one for the night on network television. The show drew a 0.95 rating in that demo (1.350 last week), as well as a 0.70 rating among 18-34 year olds (0.950 last week).

While the total viewership was down a staggering 25 percent this week, FOX has to be pleased with the fact that the show still ranked number one for the night on network television in the key ratings demographics.

SmackDown held its audience pretty consistently throughout the broadcast, with the show only dropping about two percent from hour one to hour two, which is far better than RAW typically does as the show moves on.

WWE did promote this week's broadcast a considerable amount, with it being the first night of this year's WWE Draft. However, due to the big names that were promoted last week and it being the debut episode on FOX, it was inevitable that the ratings would fall back to earth a bit this week.

Earlier this week, both AEW on TNT and WWE NXT on the USA Network saw their numbers fall as well from the previous week. Earlier this week, RAW drew 2.334 million viewers, so SmackDown came in with about 20 percent more viewers than its Monday night counterpart.

In terms of pure viewership this week on network television, SmackDown was topped during its two hours by both CBS (Hawaii Five-O, Magnum P.I.) and NBC (The Blacklist, Dateline NBC). ABC only topped SmackDown during the 8:00-8:30 half hour with American Housewife.