Smackdown Rating: How did WWE compare to ESPN’s Duke-Louisville game and NBA’s Celtics-76ers game, trends compared to past two years

This week’s (Feb. 12) edition of WWE Smackdown Live drew a 1.54 rating, up from last week’s 1.39 (which went up against President Trump’s State of the Union address), and back within the range of the prior three weeks (1.58, 1.54, 1.55).

One year ago Smackdown drew a 1.70 rating; two years ago this week Smackdown drew a 1.87 rating. So the year-to-year decline continues.

The 2019 average so far is 1.49 compared to last year’s average through this week of 1.75.

Total viewership was 2.034 million. That was behind “Curse of Oak Island” on History Network (which drew 3.700 million viewers), “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News (which drew 2.934 million), “Hannity” on Fox News (which drew 2.891 million viewers), and “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC (which drew 2.847 million viewers). Smackdown did outdraw the Duke vs. Louisville college basketball game on ESPN, which drew 1.875 million.

In the key demographic of adults 18-49, Smackdown (0.7) finished third behind “Curse of Oak Island” (0.8) and the Celtics-76ers game on TNT (0.7).

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