The WWE Blue brand star continues to march towards the Backlash Premium Live event on May 10th, with a May 2nd episode of “WWE Smackdown” in Des Moines, Iowa. Randy Orton has promised to kick John Cena in the shoulder from the head in the upcoming title match. Aleister Black defeated Miz and went back from Inling, who had a successful success.
Despite all this, it seems like a kind of WrestleMania hangover is permeating WWE’s viewership, as programming insiders confirmed that the May 2 episode of “Smackdown” averaged a total of 1,406,000 viewers. This is a 12% drop from last week’s 1,599,000 viewers, an average of 1,617,000 viewers over the past week, 13% below 13%, giving the May 2 episode the lowest viewership since March 28th.
However, “SmackDown” recorded a figure of 0.37, the lowest ever recorded at 0.37, the 18-49 demographic. Not only was its lowest since November 15th, 2024, it was 27% lower than the previous week’s 0.51 count, and 26% lower than the average of 0.50 over the next four weeks. This could be attributed to the hype of WrestleMania 41, but the competition on Friday night came into the weaker numbers as “Smackdown” went up to Game 6 of the NBA playoffs between the Houston Rocket and the Golden State Warriors aired on ESPN. The Rockets vs. Warriors game pushed “Smackdown” into the third night on both network and cable television broadcasts, with a pre-match show that aired just before it reached second place.
