8/9 WWE Smackdown TV Ratings - Week 3 down vs. Olympics -
Week 3 of the Smackdown Live era tumbled against the Olympics, similar to Monday’s Raw.
WWE Smackdown TV Ratings Tracking
August 9: WWE Smackdown scored a 1.69 TV rating, down nine percent from last week’s 1.86 rating.
Smackdown drew 2.455 million viewers, down 8.4 percent (about 226,000 viewers) from last week’s audience.
– DEMOGRAPHICS: Smackdown was down about one-tenth of a rating in adults 18-49 and males 18-49.
Males 18-34 was down less than one-tenth as the only demo to be consistent over the first three weeks of the “new era” for Smackdown.
Caldwell’s Analysis: Smackdown has one more week against the Olympics next Tuesday for the pre-Summerslam episode, then WWE really needs to find an identity for Smackdown Live after Summerslam. Not having John Cena and A.J. Styles available this week hurt the show’s star power, but it’s more about Smackdown not getting much of a boost from a production and presentation standpoint with the “cool ideas” going to Raw. Too much of Smackdown Live feels like the skippable, “old era” Smackdown.