Monday Night RAW is not the only WWE show whose television numbers have been improving. SmackDown Live's viewership also saw an increase this week.
According to Showbuzz Daily, the August 30 episode of SmackDown Live drew 2.835 million viewers. This is up 4.46% from last week's show, which drew 2.714 million viewers. It is the best number that the show has done since the WWE Draft episode on July 19. SmackDown Live was #2 for the night in viewership, behind The Have & Have Nots, and #1 in the 18-49 demographic with a rating of 0.91.
Since the Olympics ended a little more than a week ago, the blue brand show has been putting in solid numbers, averaging about 2.775 million viewers for the past two weeks, compared to the 2.536 million viewers the show averaged from August 2-16.
This week's episode saw the return of former Tag Team Champions The Headbangers when they took on Heath Slater and Rhyno in the first round of the SmackDown Tag Team Tournament, where the finals will be at the Backlash pay-per-view on September 11. The show opened with The Miz further talking about Daniel Bryan's comments towards him on the August 23 edition of Talking Smack, where Bryan said The Miz wrestled "like a coward." The main event pitted WWE World Champion Dean Ambrose and Baron Corbin against one another.
