The April 25 episode of "WWE SmackDown" saw the final fallout from WrestleMania 41 as the WWE roster begins to turn their attention to the Backlash Premium Live Event in St. Louis, Missouri on May 10. Aleister Black made his long awaited return to WWE by attacking The Miz, Zelina Vega shocked the world by beating Chelsea Green to becoming the new WWE Women's United States Champion, and The Street Profits went to hell and back in order to keep The Motor City Machine Guns and #DIY from becoming the WWE Tag Team Champions in a high octane TLC match.
As far as the TV ratings were concerned, it was more of a mixed bag for WWE as The Programming Insider has confirmed that the April 25 episode of "SmackDown" averaged a total of 1,599,000 viewers, marking an 8% drop from the previous week's 1,741,000 viewers. However, this was still 3% higher than the trailing four week average, which currently stands at 1,555,000 viewers. In the 18-49 demographic, "SmackDown"posted a 0.51 number, a 7% decrease from the 0.55 number posted seven days earlier, but 9% above the trailing four week average of 0.47.
However, the main reason why the ratings were such a mixed bag was down to the competition "SmackDown" faced on Friday night. Despite having strong numbers that would put them first in the network and cable rankings most weeks, a 0.51 number put "SmackDown" in third place in the cable rankings, and fourth when including network telecasts, primarily due to the coverage of the second day of the NFL Draft, and the NBA play-off game between the Boston Celtics and the Orlando Magic. With that said, "SmackDown" was able to rank higher than the two NHL Stanley Cup games, as well as the NBA and NFL Draft coverage that was streamed on their own respective services.
