As predicted by most, last night’s debut of WWE SmackDown on the USA Network saw a big boost in the ratings. Last night’s episode brought in 2.757 million viewers and a 0.85 rating in the 18 – 49 demographic. Comparing those numbers to last week’s New Year’s Eve episode is pointless due to the decreased ratings for the holiday; instead, the show was up 22% and 19% from the 2.264 million viewers and 0.71 demo rating from two weeks ago and that demo rating had been the highest since June.
All in all, SmackDown’s numbers were the highest since the January 19th episode from last year, which brought in 2.952 million viewers and matched the 0.85 demo rating. It also topped the 2.432 million viewers and 0.7 demo rating from a year ago, the first episode to do beat the previous year’s rating since the post-WrestleMania 31 episode.
Of course, this has to be viewed in the context of the move to USA Network. While USA Network doesn’t have many more available households than SyFy (95.6 million vs. 93.6 million), the move was heavily hyped and that surely played into things. The show is also not up against many of the Thursday heavyweights on the networks, which are not back from hiatus yet. Still, it’s a number they have to be very pleased with.
SmackDown came in #2 for the night among cable originals, behind only Lip Synch Battle’s return (1.37 demo rating, 2.495 million viewers).
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