This week’s WWE SmackDown episode, featuring WWE Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Jeff Hardy in a non-title main event, drew 1.841 million viewers. This is down from last week’s 2.137 million viewers for the post-Royal Rumble episode.
This is the lowest SmackDown audience for the USA Network, coming in under the 1.904 million viewers from this past Christmas.
President Trump’s State of the Union Address and related coverage dominated cable TV last night. The 9pm ET address airing on Fox News topped the night in the 18-49 demographic and in viewership with 11.266 million viewers. CNN and MSNBC also had stronger than usual audiences for the address and related programs. The CNN airing of the address drew 3.471 million viewers while MSNBC drew 3.785 million viewers.
SmackDown aired against Trump’s SOTU in 2018 as well, drawing 2.509 million viewers for the post-2018 Rumble episode, which was down from the previous week’s 2.580 million viewers. SmackDown ranked #21 in viewership and #9 in the 18-49 demographic that night.
SmackDown was #20 for the night in viewership on cable, behind 14 SOTU programs, Curse of Oak Island, Tucker Carlson Tonight, Hannity, 11th Hour and The Ingraham Angle. SmackDown was #10 in the 18-49 demographic this week, behind 8 programs related to the SOTU and Curse of Oak Island.
The big draw on network TV at 8pm was Ellen’s Game of Games on NBC, which drew 6.312 million viewers.
In comparison, Monday’s WWE RAW drew 2.510 million viewers, down from last week’s 2.703 million viewers for the post-Royal Rumble episode.
Below is our 2019 SmackDown Viewership Tracker:
January 1 Episode: 2.091 million viewers (New Year’s episode, taped)
January 8 Episode: 2.032 million viewers
January 15 Episode: 2.143 million viewers
January 22 Episode: 2.142 million viewers
January 29 Episode: 2.137 million viewers (post-Royal Rumble episode)
February 5 Episode: 1.841 million viewers (State of the Union competition)
February 12 Episode:
2018 Total: 122.304 million viewers
2018 Average: 2.352 million viewers per episode
2017 Total: 132.401 million viewers
2017 Average: 2.546 million viewers per episode
