After his reveal in the closing moments of last week’s episode, CM Punk’s first show as an analyst on WWE Backstage led to the show experiencing a jump in viewership.
Tuesday’s night’s show, completely built around CM Punk’s appearance, averaged 180,000 viewers on FS 1 and was up from last week’s figure of 100,000.
It is hard to envision the show having a larger hook than Punk’s first appearance on a WWE-affiliated program since leaving the company in 2014.
It’s the highest viewership for Backstage in its Tuesday night timeslot since the official launch on November 5th, although nowhere close to the two episodes that ran in October following the ALCS game on FS 1 and an episode following Friday Night SmackDown. The shows with the big lead-ins did 597,000 and 426,000 viewers respectively in October.
Punk will not be on the show every week but will be a regular contributor to the show.
There was a bright spot from Total Divas, which has hits its lowest viewership totals in the franchise’s history this season. This week’s show, focusing on this past year’s WrestleMania weekend, averaged 295,000 viewers and was their highest mark this season.
