WWE SmackDown Ratings Drop For Last Live Show Before Night Of Champions

Last Friday, WWE held a double "SmackDown" taping, with the first half airing live and the second half airing this coming Friday since most of the top stars will already be in Saudi Arabia for Night of Champions. Against stiff competition from the NBA and NHL conference finals coverage, maintaining the previous week's positive momentum seemed like a tall order, and Monday afternoon's ratings report confirms that was, in fact, the case.

According to reporting from ShowbuzzDaily and Wrestlenomics, the May 19 "SmackDown" averaged 2,133,000 viewers across its two hours (down less than one percent from last week), approximately 691,000 of which were in the "key demo" most valued by advertisers, adults aged 18 to 49 (down five percent from the week prior). The latter figure translates to a 0.53 rating in P18-49, giving it third place for the day behind the Miami Heat-Boston Celtics game (2.05) and its post-game show (0.96).

For a more extensive picture look at the recent ratings, the Wrestlenomics Patreon page tracks how "SmackDown" did in various demographics in relation to the median of the prior four weeks' numbers. By that metric, every demo being followed was down slightly from the median by a few percent at most, except for all viewers outside the key demo, which saw no change. The biggest percentage drop was a three-way tie between adults aged 18 to 49, adults aged 35 to 49, and adults aged 25 to 54, all of which were down four percent from the median. Adults aged 18 to 34 were just behind those demos with a four percent drop, while total viewers were down one percent.