WWE SmackDown ratings up for fourth straight week

SmackDown ratings were up for the fourth straight week, with Tuesday night’s episode on the USA Network averaging 2.68 million viewers.

That’s in contrast to Raw’s ratings this week, which were down 10 percent from the prior Monday and marked the show’s second lowest viewership since the start of the NFL season. SmackDown retained 97.4 percent of Raw’s audience this week, the second highest retention since the brand split.

SmackDown finished sixth for the night on cable in terms of total viewers and was first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.82 rating. Going into the night, Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton, AJ Styles vs. The Singh Brothers in a handicap match, and the return of the Fashion Files had been advertised for the show.

SmackDown was also up four percent over the same week from last year, which marked the 10th time in the last 13 weeks that it was up year-over-year. This week’s Raw was down 11 percent from 2016.