The ratings for WWE SmackDown’s debut on the USA Network are in and as expected, the show did a pretty big increase. The show drew 2.757 million viewers and a 0.85 rating in the 18 – 49 demographic. In comparison to two weeks ago (we’ll skip last week as it’s an unfair comparison due to the New Year’s Eve holiday), the show was up 22% and 19% from the 2.264 million viewers and 0.71 demo rating on the SyFy network.
WWE SmackDown’s numbers were the highest since the January 19th episode from 2015, which brought in 2.952 million viewers and matched the 0.85 demo rating. It also topped the 2.432 million viewers and 0.7 demo rating from a year ago, the first episode to do beat the previous year’s rating since the post-WrestleMania 31 episode.
WWE SmackDown came in #2 for the night among cable originals, behind the return of Lip Synch Battle (1.37 demo rating, 2.495 million viewers).
