Smackdown Rating: Two weeks after Vince-Owens headbutt, with promise of Shane’s response to Owens last week, did viewership increase? (w/Keller’s Analysis)

Tuesday night’s episode of WWE Smackdown, built around Shane McMahon responding to Kevin Owens’ inflammatory comments last week, drew a 1.73 rating, the same as last week. It was good enough to beat last year’s rating the same week of 1.69. The ten week rolling average headed into this week was 1.76, so it’s down a bit, although the Vince McMahon appearance spiked the rating two weeks ago at 1.93 and that outlier moved the average up a notch as a result.

Viewership totaled 2.542 million.

September ended up averaging 1.78. The 2017 average is 1.76 (compared to 1.73 through this week in 2016).

Keller’s Analysis: There wasn’t any reason to expect an increase or a drop in the rating. Without John Cena, but with a continuation of the Kevin Owens-Shane McMahon storyline, it seemed ratings would be steady, and they were.