This week’s WWE SmackDown episode, featuring WWE Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Jeff Hardy in a non-title main event, drew 1.841 million viewers. This is down 14% from last week’s 2.137 million viewers for the post-Royal Rumble episode. (Source: ShowBuzzDaily/WrestlingInc)
This is the lowest SmackDown audience for the USA Network, coming in 3.3% under the 1.904 million viewers from this past Christmas.
President Trump’s State of the Union Address and related coverage dominated cable TV last night. The 9pm ET address airing on Fox News topped the night in the 18-49 demographic and in viewership with 11.266 million viewers. CNN and MSNBC also had stronger than usual audiences for the address and related programs. The CNN airing of the address drew 3.471 million viewers while MSNBC drew 3.785 million viewers.
SmackDown aired against Trump’s SOTU in 2018 as well, drawing 2.509 million viewers for the post-2018 Rumble episode, which was down 2.8% from the previous week’s 2.580 million viewers. SmackDown ranked #21 in viewership and #9 in the 18-49 demographic that night.