Smackdown Rating: How did Fourth of July holiday edition do with John Cena’s heavily-hyped return?

Last week’s episode of WWE Smackdown, which fell on the Fourth of July but featured the return of John Cena, drew a 1.59 rating. That is below the rolling ten week average of 1.62 headed into last week, and below the 2017 average of 1.76. It’s also below the June average of 1.65 and the year-ago number of 1.62. That said, it held up pretty well considering the expected dropoff for the Fourth of July holiday.

Viewership was 2.33 million, down from the 2.36 million ten-week rolling average.

The 2017 average rating of 1.76 is above the 2016 average through this week last year of 1.69.