Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live pulled the lowest television rating since the 2016 brand split, averaging 1.841 million viewers, down from 2.137 million the week before.
The reason for the sharp decline was Donald Trump’s 90-minute State of the Union address, which was viewed by in excess of 30 million people and went directly against SmackDown.
This is the second time that Trump has negatively impacted SmackDown ratings, with the show’s previous low of 1.921 million coming against election night coverage in 2016.
The number can be dismissed this week as a blip and will likely return to normal levels next week. However, there is no doubt that in general the SmackDown number is falling, with the overall average for 2019 thus far just a shade above 2 million, way down from the 2.58 million average this time last year.
SmackDown Ratings in 2019
5 years ago by Wrestle Talk
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