SmackDown sees massive boost in viewership due to change in channel

The viewership for the show saw a staggering increase of 1.4 million viewers over last week’s episode (December 2), which posted a mere 902,000. The shocking fall in people watching last week was due to the episode airing on FS1 instead of FOX due to the PAC-12 Championship game.

Last week’s viewership is also the highest for the blue brand since September 23. It is also, surprisingly, the fourth-highest viewer count for the show this year and the third-highest since the new administration came to power.

Last week’s episode of SmackDown also saw a significant climb in the key demographic of 18-49-year-olds, from 0.25 last week to 0.57 this time round, but this should not come as a surprise due to the channel situation. This was also the highest key demo rating in about a month, only just beaten by a 0.58 rating of the November 11 episode.

Last week’s SmackDown saw a milk bath, celebrated a Hall of Famer’s birthday

The December 9 edition of SmackDown was dedicated to celebrating the birthday of WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle, who turned 54. We saw several segments of him meeting several superstars backstage, and even his kayfabe son Jason Jordan.

The Olympian threw a birthday party at the end of the night, which was crashed by Alpha Academy. The duo of Chad Gable and Otis were then bathed in milk by Angle with the help of Gable Steveson, who brought in the milk truck.

For the matches on the night, The Usos successfully defended their Undisputed Tag Team Championships against Butch and Sheamus of Brawling Brutes. Legado Del Fantasma defeated The Viking Raiders via DQ, and the team of The New Day and Ricochet defeated Imperium. This came after a contract signing for a future Intercontinental Championship match between GUNTHER and The One and Only.

The last match of the night saw Liv Morgan and Tegan Knox defeat the team of SmackDown Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler in a tag match.

As for backstage and in-ring segments, apart from everything, including Kurt Angle, LA Knight figured that Uncle Howdy was behind his attack last week, but he was later seemingly attacked by Bray Wyatt/Howdy again. Karrion Kross bullied Rey Mysterio and called the veteran “useless,” while The Bloodline encouraged Sami Zayn to get a haircut.

With January right around the corner, WWE weekly TV, including SmackDown, will start ramping up to the Royal Rumble, which marks the start of The Road to WrestleMania.