How was “Smackdown Live’s” Fourth of July Audience?

File this under “it could have been worse”. John Cena made his return to the WWE this week when he appeared on “Smackdown Live”. This should have been a huge draw but the problem is it took place on the Fourth of July, a night when the TV ratings and audience are almost always through the floor. The question was how well could the show do on the holiday.

Independence Day Battle Royal: SmackDown LIVE, July 4, 2017

As it turns out, not too badly. According to 411mania.com, the show drew 2.329 viewers and a .75 rating in the 18-49 demographic, down 11% and 10% from last week’s 2.603 and .83. While those drops are fairly significant, compare them to the 2014 Fourth of July “Smackdown” when numbers dropped 44% and 37% respectively.

Opinion: While not great, these are about as good of a set of results as you could have asked for from this show. At the end of the day, people just aren’t going to be watching TV on a major holiday so keeping that much of the audience is a good sign. If Cena is around more often, those numbers should go up fairly easily.

Did you see the show this week? What do you think needs to change going forward? Let us know in the comments below.