With two matches that had Royal Rumble implications, WWE probably thought that this week's SmackDown Live would be a hit but when President Donald Trump announced that he would be making a live speech at 9pm, ratings for the show ended up taking a hit. With arguments about a government shutdown raging, the blue brand managed to attract a total of 2,032,000 million viewers this week.
That's a drop of 52,000 viewers compared to last week's pre-recorded New Year's Day show and WWE has to be disappointed. With any luck, the numbers will rebound next week as the PPV nears.
WWE definitely seems to have the odds stacked against them when it comes to regaining viewers but SmackDown Live is definitely doing better than RAW and has actually been fairly consistent in recent weeks. What did you guys think of the show? As always, share your thoughts in the comments section.