Following the conclusion of Night of Champions, the July 4 episode of WWE SmackDown marked the first two-hour show for WWE’s Blue brand in over six months and served as a key lead-up to the main event and Evolution 2 events scheduled for July 12th and 13th. Highlight moments included Drew McIntyre setting up a match against Randy Orton, Trish Stratus challenging Tiffany Stratum for a title shot at Evolution 2, and Jimmy Uso and Jacob Fatu improving the main event alongside J.C. Mateo and Solosicore.
However, due to the July 4 national holiday, viewership took a noticeable hit, with the episode averaging 1,166,000 viewers—a 20% drop from the previous week’s 1,450,000 and the lowest audience for an unredacted SmackDown episode in history except for a similarly low number on December 29, 2023. In the 18-49 age demographic, the show scored a 0.32 rating, down 22% from the previous week’s 0.41 and 20% lower than the two-week average of 0.40. Despite these declines, SmackDown still claimed the top spot on cable for the night in the key 18-49 demographic, marking its third time leading in this category, especially notable given the light competing programming on the holiday.
Fan Take: This episode’s dip in viewership is understandable given the holiday, but the strong positioning in the key demographic shows WWE SmackDown’s enduring appeal and relevance. For fans, the promising match setups hint at exciting developments in the lead-up to Evolution 2, reinforcing why this period is crucial for WWE’s storytelling and future hype.
