Smackdown Viewership On FOX Declines Once Again

[Rell84shots]

Smackdown viewership on FOX declines once again
Submitted by Aaron Rift on 10/19/2019 at 12:00 PM


The 3rd edition of Friday Night Smackdown on FOX saw another decline in viewership. This week's show, coming off the WWE Draft, drew 2.44 million viewers. Last week's show drew 2.898 million viewers and the premiere from two weeks ago drew 3.869 million viewers. The 18-49 demographic dropped from 1.0 to .75.

It's time for them stop bullshytting and be serious. Jason Powell pointed out that based on how the product is being booked he believes that FOX isn't pressuring the WWE to change much. The troubling sign in the grand scheme is that nobody is gaining any viewers. It would be one thing if WWE was losing viewers to AEW but their numbers are decreasing as well, so it seems like the majority are WWE or bust. Fox fukked up by forcing the Lesnar move and not realizing that he wasn't going to be there every week, and they refuse to push Daniel Bryan as the top babyface even though the fans are begging for it.

Fox execs said that they were barely getting over a 1.0 on Fridays so they're not freaking out yet, but I expect the next show on FS1 to set up something big for November.

 

[g-ice]

Everything Wrestling related will have shyt ratings. There's so many ways to play catch up in terms of content.

And also television programming is on high demand now. So honestly the ratings talk in 2019 should be fukking null and void if you ask me.

 

[AquaCityBoy]

Deservedly. Last night's Smackdown was one of the worst episodes in some time.

 

[The Rainmaker]

Wrestling is dead. Let's just change this subforum to "Old sitcoms and cereals discussion".

 

[Rell84shots]

Everything Wrestling related will have shyt ratings. There's so many ways to play catch up in terms of content.

And also television programming is on high demand now. So honestly the ratings talk in 2019 should be fukking null and void if you ask me.

I've said that outside of football everyone is getting shytty ratings, at best you hope to get a 4 or 5 and even that takes a rare critically acclaimed show like This is Us.

Wrestling is dead. Let's just change this subforum to "Old sitcoms and cereals discussion".

The audience is there as evidence by the season premiere numbers for all the shows, but you either have bad booking (WWE) or too many matches (AEW). Smackdown still got a 2.8 the week after all the hype died down so the ratings decline is their fault with their bad decisions.

 

[Lootpack]

Awesome news.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

@Rell84shots

Respectfully

How many matches do you think spose to be on a 2 hr show?


AEW only had 6 matches, you really think that’s too much?

 

[Breh Obama]

We've pretty much seen everything there is to see in wrestling

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

it's an issue but it's not a dire situation until 18-49 drops below the average for the timeslot and both smackdown and AEW are doing ok in the demo

 

[CM_Burns]

The business is over. There's enough good stuff in history, most of it on the network, to last you the rest of your life though.

 

[dh86]

The business is over. There's enough good stuff in history, most of it on the network, to last you the rest of your life though.

Wrestling will outlive Vince McMahon & WWE.

 

[dh86]

Whoever made the choice to put the belt on Brock would be pushed out.

 

[Da King]

Play fighting boom the markkks said

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

@Rell84shots

Respectfully

How many matches do you think spose to be on a 2 hr show?


AEW only had 6 matches, you really think that’s too much?

Breh about half way during the Mox match I realized it was 9:30. The show felt like it flew by. Granted we still had three matches during the live attendance show (two for Dark) it never felt like it ran too long.

I'm fact the only match on TV that I felt ran too long was the Bucks vs Private Party which was only over by around 5 minutes and probably their best overall match on Dynamite to date.

 

[Rell84shots]

@Rell84shots

Respectfully

How many matches do you think spose to be on a 2 hr show?


AEW only had 6 matches, you really think that’s too much?

AEW is only matches, the overall criticism is that they're not doing much storytelling. The problem with wrestling now in general is that i'm seeing matches and promos/segments have been bushed. AEW had 6 matches but for the most part it's a bookend kind of deal, where imo the opener and main event are the only good matches. Look at every promotion from and you'll see that whenever they were successful was when they had a good mix between wrestling/storylines.

As for the WWE the structure of SD is all fukked up and they know better. They opened with a fun championship match but then followed up with a fukking Shorty Gable match, they should've followed up with Miz TV and then afterwards go into the 8 man tag match. The problem is that they don't seem to remember how to build up to the main event, and they're going to have to tell Fox that Lesnar as champ is hurting them as well.

Whoever made the choice to put the belt on Brock would be pushed out.

That was a Fox call

it's an issue but it's not a dire situation until 18-49 drops below the average for the timeslot and both smackdown and AEW are doing ok in the demo

If all Fox cares about is winning the night then they're fine, but at some point they have to stop booking like it's a hobby and not their job. Honestly if Stone Cold showed up and called out their shytty booking it would make them switch up real quick, because they really don't care what regular people or YouTube reviewers say.