The viewership is in for the 7/24 episode of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX. According to Showbuzz Daily, the show averaged 1.970 million viewers which is up from last week’s number of 1,893,000 overnight viewers. Hour one of the recent edition of SmackDown drew 1.985 million and the second hour reeled in 1.956 million.
This week’s episode is the highest for the month of July thus far. When it comes to the 18-49 demographic, the show did a 0.5 rating. Below are the top five most viewed videos on WWE’s YouTube channel that have to do with last night’s episode of SmackDown:
Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus – Bar Fight (691,954 views)
Alexa Bliss vs. Nikki Cross (392,893 views)
Bray Wyatt warns that HE has been unleashed (242,052 views)
Big E gets blessing from injured Kofi Kingston for solo run (230,194 views)
Bayley & Banks proclaim end to Women’s Evolution with new era of greatness (208,948 views)
To catch up on the news and notes coming out the 7/24 edition of SmackDown and what’s on tap for next week’s program, check out POST Wrestling’s SmackDown notes article.
Glad that the rating went up. That bar fight was fun. I love AEW, but it’s sad that if that same thing happened on Dynamite, some people would be praising it, but because it’s WWE, of course it gets shit on.
I didn’t mind the bar fight itself, just a ridiculous nature of the storyline. However, that aside I did like a lot of the show because I thought there were some really solid booking. I liked a lot of the superstars performances. They show left us with some questions which is a good thing.
The return of live sports to TV will bring more viewers to TV, and thus more channel flippers.
The idea that the return of sports will hurt WWE is something I doubt. Could be true, but WWE ratings have declined for two reasons: 1) quality of WWE shows , 2) overall TV viewership decline.
Live baseball, basketball, and especially football, will see many more people watching TV (as in live, linear programming, not the on-demand streaming servers). This will buoy many shows, as the channel flippers may check out non-sports shows before or after their many interest.
I dont think baseball or hockey make a dent in the US, but I think when the NBA playoffs start that will hurt them. NFL will on Mondays as well, but that happens every year.
I don’t recall AEW exploiting a recovering alcoholic’s lifelong battle with addiction in their bar fight just to propel the story. That’s a pretty substantial difference.
And no, I have no preference or bias towards either company as a whole.
Good or Bad, I think we all have biases towards WWE, right? The only way a person could have zero bias is if they started watching the product today. Most of us to a degree form our opinions of them based on past behaviour.
I think you ignored the main point I was trying to make about the difference between companies. I don’t have any bias, I just read the news. Makes no difference to me who does or doesn’t do an angle better. I was speaking to his comment that more or less said “well AEW did a bar fight and no one complained.” To which I responded, the difference is that one was just a bar fight segment in a cinematic match. While another was exploitative and had an entire storyline about it.
No I understand what you meant and I see the difference. I don’t dispute that.
I think you are looking at the word bias as some type of slight to your credibility, that’s not what I’m saying. I don’t mean you have a bias that is pro AEW, I mean that we all have biases against WWE. You said yourself in the other thread when analyzing the sheamus/hardy angle, that year after year of shifty behaviour from WWE impacts your assessment today. That is a bias. Anytime you let something from the past impact an analysis of today, that’s literally having a bias.Nothing wrong with it, it just is what it is.
Well, it’s not bias inherently. The things we discussed weren’t up to opinion, they were fact of the matter. To go back for a second, WWE has a long history of insensitive stereotype portrayal on their television. Now, if I said my personal feelings on the company as a whole based on those facts, that’s a bias. But neither of us can deny the existence of it point blank
But objectively in this scenario, stating the fact that WWE had a storyline surrounding Jeff Hardy’s real life battle with addiction is not me celebrating or condemning it outright. That’s just what it was. The AEW bar fight was more of just a simple skit for laughs in their cinematic match. Now, when I assess the facts and state my feelings on the presentation - sure, that’s my opinion.
In the case of this thread, I stated I didn’t have a bias on this subject. I just said, one was sort of a skit and the other tackled a lot of real-life issues and exploitative them. That’s just what happened. I stated I was not biased at the end so I didn’t come off as a fanboy of either. Because I truly don’t care. WWE and AEW do things differently to varying degrees of success. There’s just no comparison between the two angles
Exactly, and your knowledge of that and you accounting for that when assessing anything gives you a natural bias. I have it as well, we all do. Its incredibly hard to asses WWE without bias if you have followed the product for a long period of time.
Again, I dont mean bias in the way people will accuse Fox news of having a right leaning bias, or CNN of having a left leaning bias, I don’t think you favor one or the other. I mean it along the lines of if you know someone who committed a crime, you couldn’t be on the jury because like them, hate them, indifferent to them, you are going to have a bias.
This just seems like a pointless debate in semantics, to be honest.
5 + 5 = 10. Fact, not bias.
Friends is a comedy sitcom. Fact, not bias.
WWE currently presents Akira Tozawa as a ninja. That’s a racial stereotype. Fact, not bias.
Nobody’s standing trial here. You’re overthinking it. All I had said is what the two stories were, not whether or not I enjoyed them.
Dude, I’m over this. You’re talking in circles. The last line of my initial comment was simply to state I have no preference of over either show. That’s it. Then you turned the entire conversation into that last line, versus the true context I was trying to convey. Feels pointless and now redundant. I’m out.
For the record, I never disputed the idea of you having a preference of either. Sorry, I thought I made that clear. As far as talking in circles, you really don’t need to take a personal shot, and to be fair so are you. I agree though, nothing else needs to be said.
To me you’re extremely sensitive if you were offended by any of this. If they had him overdose then you’d have a leg to stand on but this was just a case of a heel being an asshole. So called smart fans always get upset at being made to feel something negative even when they know it’s a work.
My main takeaway from this bar fight is that I liked Sheamus’ look in the match. Hopefully he keeps it.
I wasn’t offended by anything, but I haven’t liked the angle. I still haven’t watched the bar fight, but I did Tivo it and to be honest with all the talk about it I am very curious to see how it plays out.
I think if you listened to Wai and Kristen’s edition of RAS and still came out thinking people are overreacting to this angle, that’s a major you problem. That’s all I’ll say on that.
Side note, only in wrestling do fans use the word “smart” as a negative/slight. Why is this a derogatory term to slam people for being invested and passionate about a product? “It’s all a work” is also a poor excuse, too. “Oh he’s such a good heel!” doesn’t mask insensitivity and tasteless television.
No, it’s not a me problem. I don’t look at a wrestling show as something that’s going to shape my outlook on life. The vast majority of people don’t. If you do then that’s a you problem. The bad guy was taunting the person that had issues, that person stood up to it. That’s problematic? Really?
And I wasn’t using “smart” as an insult. I was suggesting that even though people want to think of themselves as smart, they still get worked into actually becoming emotional and then they’re offended by being made to feel a certain way. I’m making fun of their false positioning of themselves.
Do you watch TV shows? Do you get upset by any slight uncomfortable subject matter and then get angry at the writers of a TV show?