On May 30, SmackDown was free from NBA and NHL Playoffs competition for the first time in weeks. WWE promoted the show with John Cena AND Cody Rhodes. Sounds like the recipe for some big numbers, right?
Well, summertime can be tricky — even with a star-studded show. And SmackDown’s rating did improve from the previous weeks lows, and WWE’s blue show did finish first in the ratings last Friday night. But we still wouldn’t call its numbers “big”.
Per Programming Insider, last week’s SmackDown was watched by 1,383,000 with a .34 rating among 18-49 year olds. That’s an identical number of total viewers as the Friday before, and a 3% increase in the demo. It’s the third straight week SmackDown has failed to reach 1.4 million viewers (something that only happened six times total in the preceding seven months). The rating is still the second lowest of the year.
But again, it beat all other originals on television in the ratings for May 30, so it’s performing well in comparison to Friday’s regular slate. ABC’s Shark Tank was second with a .25 in the demo.
The Money in the Bank go home this Friday will miss the NBA Finals, but go head-to-head with Game 2 of hockey’s Stanley Cup Finals on TNT. When we find out how that episode did, we’ll tell you about it — and update our running tally of the past year’s worth of the show’s results:
* Moved from FOX to USA Network (broadcast to cable)
** Added a third hour
For complete results from the latest SmackDown, our live blog is here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here.