Last night’s episode of SmackDown on the USA Network was down six percent in the ratings, posting the show’s fourth lowest number of 2017 at just 2.32 million viewers. This follows Raw on Monday night, which was down a similar percentage with its lowest audience number since mid-June.
SmackDown finished ninth for the night on cable both in terms of total viewers and in the 18-49 demo, though it went against heavy competition from the MLB playoffs and the opening night of the NBA regular season.
The NBA averaged 5.6 million viewers airing directly opposite SmackDown on TNT, while the ending of the ALCS game and beginning of the NLCS game aired against the show and had audiences of 4.7 million and 6.0 million respectively.
For the first time since August, SmackDown was down year-over-year as well:
The audience retention from the previous night was nearly identical to last week, so SmackDown’s ratings seem somewhat tied to Raw’s. Here’s a look at SmackDown ratings in 2017 and how they compare to Raw’s from the same week: