Viewership for this week’s episode of SmackDown Live rises up by generating an average of 2.720 million viewers. This is up 2.4% from last week’s 2.656 million viewers. This is the first show of the year which featured Sami Zayn defeating WWE Champion AJ Styles in a non-title main event matchup.
SmackDown was #5 in viewership for this week on cable, behind Curse of Oak Island, Fixer Upper, Tucker Carlson and Hannity. SmackDown was #2 in the 18-49 demographic this week, behind Curse of Oak Island.
In comparison, Monday’s New Year’s Day RAW generated an average of 2.865 million viewers, which was up from last week’s 2.703 million viewers for the final episode of 2017, which took place on Christmas Day. It beat SmackDown’s audience by 6%.