WWE SmackDown ratings up slightly for Superstar Shake-up

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Paul Fontaine | @PaulAceFontaine | Apr 17, 2019 3:08 pm


Last night's SmackDown averaged 2.219 million viewers on the USA Network, up two percent from last week's post-WrestleMania show. It was down over 20 percent from the 2018 version of SmackDown's Superstar Shake-up episode.

The decline year-over-year was not quite as steep as Raw the night before, so the show retained 83 percent of Monday's audience.

With the NBA playoffs starting, the next few months should see lower ratings overall, especially after the opening rounds. Last night's SmackDown went up against game two of the Toronto Raptors/Orlando Magic series, which did 2.239 million viewers. A later game featuring the Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers did even better, with 2.594 million.

SmackDown finished ninth for the night in terms of overall cable TV viewers and third in the 18-49 demo with a 0.74 rating, trailing only the two basketball games.

In more positive ratings news, Miz and Mrs., which airs directly after SmackDown, did 1.102 million viewers, up almost 11 percent from the 997,000 viewers it did each of the last two weeks. It was the highest audience for the show since the finale of the first part of season one.