WWE News: SmackDown Live Rating Increases Yet Again, #1 For The Night (7/31/18)

With this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW seeing a ratings increase, on top of ranking number one in the 18-49 demographic for the first time since last August, it was the blue brand’s turn on Tuesday night to see if they could keep their momentum rolling. SmackDown Live has seen a ratings increase for four weeks straight no, but could this week’s show continue that?

The ratings are in and Tuesday night’s episode of the blue brand saw an increase in numbers for the fifth week in a row with a 2.401, a jump of 2.6% from last week and a 19.3% increase overall since July 3rd. Here’s a look at the last four weeks of numbers for SmackDown Live:

• July 10th: 2.183
• July 17th: 2.293
• July 24th: 2.340
• July 31st: 2.401

Also, SmackDown Live jumped back up in the Cable Top 150 Rankings for the 18-49 demographic after being knocked down last week by Discovery’s Shark Week programming to take back the number one position:

1. SmackDown Live – USA Network – 0.75
2. Below Deck Mediterranean – BRAVO – 0.58
3. Miz & Mrs. – USA Network – 0.46
4. The Challenge: Final Reckoning – MTV – 0.44
5. Deadliest Catch – Discovery – 0.43

EA’s Take: Get it, SmackDown Live! The blue brand has been on quite the run of late and with RAW seemingly leaning on their big names like Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey this week like crutches, the blue brand just continues to put on a more quality program from beginning to end. It still puzzles me that they don’t reach the level of ratings as RAW though, likely because WWE has always treated it like a second class citizen so the casuals tend to look at it that way. Or, is this a case of those same casuals not actually caring about what happens in the ring? I’ve always said that great in-ring work doesn’t sell to the mainstream/casual and let’s face it, that’s what SmackDown Live is really built on. I’d be willing to bet that if Brock and Ronda had been on the blue brand, the ratings may be swapped with RAW being the show to do just a little bit less.

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