The second three-hour SmackDown didn’t fare as well as the first, but it was also facing an entirely different level of competition.
According to Programming Insider, the Jan. 10 episode averaged an hourly audience of 1,436,000 viewers and a .40 rating among 18-49 year olds. That’s a 6% decrease from the previous week in total viewers, and down 11% from the first three-hour show in the demo.
It’s difficult to draw any conclusions about SmackDown’s extra hour from last week because the show will rarely face competition like it did last Friday (it’s pretty much impossible to draw any conclusions from a two-week sample anyway). The College Football Playoff semi-final between Ohio State and Texas aired opposite WWE in primetime on ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU, dominating the night with nearly 21 million viewers and a rating above 5.0 with the 18-49 crowd.
SmackDown was second in the demo among Friday’s primetime originals.
No extraordinary competition this week, so we’ll see if/how the show bounces back. When we get those answers, they’ll be included in our running tally of the past year’s worth of SmackDown’s numbers below:
* Moved from FOX to USA Network (broadcast to cable)
** Added a third hour
For complete results and this week’s SmackDown live blog click here, to read a recap & review of the night’s events click here, and to check out video highlights of the episode click here.