Last night's episode of SmackDown Live, a loaded episode featuring AJ Styles vs Luke Harper in a #1 Contndership match, John Cena on Miz TV, Becky Lynch vs Mickie James in a 2 out of 3 Falls Match and Apollo Crews taking on Dolph Ziggler in a Chairs Match, as well as a main event segment in which Randy Orton turned on Bray Wyatt and burned down his childhood home, managed to draw just 2.566 million viewers, according to Show Buzz Daily. This is a decrease of 8% from last week's 2.792 million viewers and is the third worst viewership number of 2017.
SmackDown did have some extra competition last night in the form of Donald Trump's first speech to Congress, though, which drew more than 30 million viewers across the various networks.
SDLive came in at #15 in viewership on cable for the night, behind programs covering Trump's speech, as well as Fixer Upper, Hannity, The O'Reilly Factor, the Democratic Response to Trump's address, The First 100 Days, Special Report and The Five. SmackDown did better in the 18-49 demographic, coming in at #7, behind various programs covering Trump.
By contrast, this week's episode of Monday night RAW garnered 3.093 million viewers, which is down from last week's 3.216 million viewers.
