'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
What’s the Story?
This week’s episode of SmackDown Live averaged 2.481 million viewers, down 12,000 views from last week’s average of 2.493.
In Case You Didn’t Know
SmackDown’s focus this week was finishing their build for the Clash of Champions pay-per-view this Sunday. The biggest takeaways from this episode were the SmackDown Women’s Division fending off the Riott Squad, Shinsuke Nakamura versus Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan adding himself to the Owens & Sami Zayn tag team match this Sunday as the second special guest referee.
The Heart of the Matter
The December 12 episode of SmackDown was up against six NBA games and saw the return of WWE Champion AJ Styles and Jinder Mahal to television following their absence last week, but the presence of both men didn’t help viewership.
This episode had the lower viewership for the month of December and puts SmackDown on a two-week viewership decrease. This episode was also the lowest viewed show since the last SmackDown of October which averaged 2.119 million.
However, go-home shows for upcoming pay-per-views usually lead to viewership decreases for WWE programming with a viewership increase after the pay-per-view.
The biggest match of the show and the main event was Nakamura with Randy Orton in his corner taking on Owens with Zayn in his corner. The other big matches on the program were The Usos versus Rusev & English as well as Baron Corbin versus Dolph Ziggler.
What’s Next?
Next week’s episode will focus on the fallout of the Clash of Champions pay-per-view with a primary emphasis on the tag team match between Owens & Zayn and Nakamura & Orton as well as the WWE Championship match.
The December 19 edition of SmackDown Live will be up against three NBA games – two that will carry over into the show’s broadcast and one that will start at the same time as SmackDown.
Author’s Take
Many fans feel that the upcoming pay-per-view is rather mundane and may be a contributing reason to SmackDown’s continuing viewership decrease.
The viewership during the holiday season is usually bad and further declines might be in the immediate future of Raw and SmackDown until 2018.
Bayley gives us a HUGE update on a top Superstar's upcoming return RIGHT HERE.
