“Smackdown” Viewership Increases for Third Straight Week

Because of a harsh winter storm that hit the Northeast region of the United States, WWE did not have a live in-ring showing of “Monday Night Raw” on Jan. 26. Instead, WWE aired its flagship program from WWE Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. Additionally, due to the circumstances, WWE decided to air a live edition of “Smackdown” on Thursday, Jan. 29 at the original location of “Raw.”

TVByTheNumbers.com has recently released viewership information for Thursday night cable programs on Jan. 29, revealing that “Smackdown” was the most-viewed and highest-rated original program for the night. For the third straight week, “Smackdown” viewership increased. This week, in its third week on Thursday evenings in 2015, average viewership was 2.952 million viewers. The figure is up five percent from last week’s viewership of 2.814 million.

The show featured preliminary fallout to the 2015 “Royal Rumble” pay-per-view. Triple H teased a “groundbreaking” announcement on “Monday Night Raw,” and a Divas Championship match was made for “Fast Lane.” The show’s main event saw Daniel Bryan defeat Kane in a Casket match, likely ending their storied feud.

Editor’s Note

I thought viewership could have reached three million due to a live showing of the program. Still, viewership increasing three weeks in a row is a great sign for “Smackdown” and its move to Thursday evenings.