This week’s Labor Day edition of Monday Night RAW saw a minor decrease in ratings and up against College Football, dropped down in the Cable Top 150 Rankings even with special appearances by The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. With no legends scheduled for SmackDown Live the following night, would they see the same results.

The answer this week is “Yes”, as the rating for the blue brand comes in at a 2.319, a decrease of 1.3% from last week. This is now the second week in a row that SmackDown Live’s rating has trended downward, even though it’s only a minor slide for this week. Here’s the last four weeks of SmackDown Live ratings:

• August 14th: 2.189
• August 21st: 2.437
• August 28th: 2.350
• September 4th: 2.319

With the premiere of a show that WWE was actually promoting during their last pay-per-view SummerSlam on Tuesday, SmackDown Live’s Cable Top 150 Ranking for the 18-49 demographic falls out of the top spot for the first time in five weeks. Here’s this week’s top five:

1. Mayans MC – FX – 1.05
2. The Bobby Brown Story – BET – 1.01
3. SmackDown Live – USA Network – 0.77
4. The Purge – USA Network – 0.55
5. The Challenge: Final Reckoning – MTV – 0.48

EA’s Take: A really similar situation to RAW this week for the second week in a row, except RAW was facing a relative ratings juggernaut in College Football. This week’s blue brand again feels like the better show to me, but that’s never made any difference compared to what RAW gets on a weekly basis. I obviously did not catch Mayans MC, so I couldn’t tell you if it’s any good or will be able to maintain its hold in the 18-49 demographic. So I’d at least expect SmackDown Live to move up to number two next week at worst, depending on what kind of season/series premieres come. The funny thing for the blue brand this week is, they actually did .02 better in that department than last. It just all comes down to the competition.

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