Last night's episode of SmackDown, featuring new WWE Champion Jinder Mahal's Punjabi Celebration plus a tag team main event of Shinsuke Nakamura & AJ Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler & Kevin Owens in the main event, drew 2.328 million viewers, according to ShowBuzz Daily. This is up from the 2.175 million viewers that watched the Backlash go-home show, which was a new year-low. Even with the improvement, last night's episode was only good enough to place 3rd-lowest in viewership for 2017.
SmackDown did manage to place #8 in viewership on cable for the night, behind the NBA Playoffs, Inside the NBA, Tucker Carlson, Rachel Maddow, Hannity, The Five and Special Report. SmackDown came in at #3 for the night with the highly coveted 18-49 demographic, behind only the NBA Playoffs and Inside the NBA.
Monday's RAW drew just 2.615 million viewers, which is down from last week's 2.751 million viewers and a new low for 2017.
