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WWE Gets Huge Ratings Surge From The Undertaker Return

By Shawn Lealos
Published on: 14:20 PST, Nov 16, 2016

The WWE has been struggling in the ratings for awhile now. One of the reasons that the WWE moved SmackDown Live to a live Tuesday night show was to make it can’t-miss and improve the ratings. On the night of the presidential election, SmackDown Live had a historically low rating. However, Forbes reports that the show received a huge jump in ratings thanks to The Undertaker WWE return to television.

Just looking at the numbers, it was an impressive night for SmackDown Live. Showbuzz Daily reports that SmackDown Live got a 0.95 rating in the 18-49 demographic and a total of 2.725 million viewers. This is up from a 0.56 rating in the same demographic and only 1.921 million viewers from the presidential election night.

Now, there are two things to take from this jump of 70 percent and 42 percent respectively. First of all, no one should ever have expected for anyone to get a decent rating on an election night with Donald Trump in the running for the president of the United States. However, the second thing to take is that this is actually a bigger jump than that.

Two weeks ago, SmackDown Live finished with a 0.67 rating in that demographic and only brought in 2.187 million viewers. The jump this week, with The Undertaker WWE return to television, the show even blew away that week’s numbers.

Also, these ratings for SmackDown Live are the highest since the second-ever live airing for the show on July 26, which had a 0.97 rating and 2.763 million viewers. That is not the only thing to look at when considering the impact of The Undertaker WWE return to television.

When looking at social media response, Forbes listed some data from Hashtags.org that shows the actual discussions of a specific topic at any given time. The hashtag #SDLive900 was huge while the show was on the air, hitting almost 40,000 tweets an hour using that specific hashtag at the 8 p.m. CT hour.

Even more impressive for the actual Undertaker WWE return to television comes with the stats for #Undertaker. For anyone who thinks that the WWE fans today don’t care about The Undertaker, these numbers prove that he is still a monster draw. During the 9 p.m. CT hour, there were an estimated 6,000 tweets with the #Undertaker hashtag.

This is huge news for the WWE and SmackDown Live in general. The Undertaker WWE return to television is not a one-time deal based on what he said when he showed up in the ring at the end of the show. Undertaker said that he is not just a WrestleMania attraction anymore and is back digging holes and stealing souls on SmackDown Live.

With John Cena barely around due to his commitments outside of the WWE, The Undertaker is the next best thing to a huge sell to mainstream audiences. SmackDown Live has arguably the better show based on in-ring action and storylines of the two major WWE shows, but for casual fans, Undertaker is still a must-see attraction.

So, what could The Undertaker WWE return to television mean for SmackDown Live? For one thing, the WWE has to hope that it means continued high ratings but they need to keep Undertaker special for that to happen. That means he needs real, emotionally driven feuds.

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The rumors are already there that believes The Undertaker will battle A.J. Styles, possibly as soon as The Royal Rumble in January. Undertaker told the SmackDown Live stars that if they failed to beat Raw, they should fear him. If AJ Styles causes his team to lose, expect Undertaker to come after the world champion.

Then, there is the question of WrestleMania. Rumors have been rampant that The Undertaker and John Cena will fight then, possibly with Undertaker’s career on the line. If the Undertaker WWE return to television concludes with his retirement at WrestleMania, this might be the last time to see the legend compete, making SmackDown Live must-see television for all WWE fans.

[Featured Image by WWE]

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