SmackDown’s ratings fell almost nine percent this week against heavy competition from the cable news networks and MLB’s American League Wildcard game, which featured the New York Yankees playing the Minnesota Twins.
SmackDown finished eighth on the night in cable in terms of total viewers and fell to third in the 18-49 demo with a 0.74 rating. The baseball game did almost seven million viewers and aired directly opposite SmackDown.
The show was up very slightly in the year-over-year ratings when compared to the same week in 2016, the fifth straight week they’ve seen an increase there.
There were no big matches promoted this week, only a confrontation between Shane McMahon and Kevin Owens to build interest in their upcoming Hell in a Cell match.
Because of the big competition from the baseball game and the usual big numbers from broadcast networks CBS and NBC, SmackDown retained just 84 percent of the Raw audience from the night before, which was also well down from recent weeks.
Here’s a look at SmackDown ratings so far in 2017 and how they compare to Raw’s numbers from the same week: