WWE SmackDown May See Drastic Viewership Drop With USA Network Move

WWE announced a huge deal to bring SmackDown back to the USA Network. They are going to start this deal in 2024, and the next half a decade will see fans tune in to see the blue brand on the USA Network. The company saw a 40% increase with this television deal, but that doesn’t guarantee they will see a boom in viewership.

WWE and UFC are keeping their media rights deals separate, and there is a reason for that. They already have firm deals in place and are making a lot of money off those contracts.

In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that FOX has a lot more viewers than the USA Network, so SmackDown will see a viewership drop. In all reality, they may draw AEW Dynamite numbers if they don’t play things correctly.

It also should be noted that Smackdown ratings moving from FOX to USA will drop significantly, based on the day of the week. Even if we figure Smackdown averages 0.45 on a non-Friday, and to me that’s a very high estimate, Raw & Smackdown would combine for a 1.00 in 18-49 each week while AEW would probably be around 58 percent of that from the three shows, and not 50 percent.

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If Smackdown remains on Friday on USA, it would do significantly worse but on Tuesday an 0.45 is an optimistic number, but not overly optimistic. If WWE does cool down, a Friday Smackdown on USA could do similar numbers to a Wednesday Dynamite, which wouldn’t look good. A Smackdown move to Wednesday would divide the audience but right now WWE would win a head-to-head, and it would hurt the value of AEW’s package. 

USA Network lays claim as the most watched cable network in the country, available in 75% of all U.S. homes and reaching 73 million homes worldwide. On the other hand, FOX has 98.97% of all U.S. television households.

WWE could make some big plays in the next month or so. They have still not announced any deal about RAW or NXT. The fact that Triple H was spotted with Jeff Bezos is even more interesting at a time like this.

What’s your take on WWE moving SmackDown around, and possibly even RAW? Sound off in the comments to let us know what you think!