For just the second time since SmackDown went live in July 2016, the show has beaten Monday Night Raw in the "ratings war." SmackDown 1000 on Tuesday averaged 2.545 million viewers, the show's best number since April 24.

Unlike when Raw does these sorts of shows and brings in an audience that is almost always the best number of the year, this audience total is just above the year-to-date average and actually below what SmackDown was doing on a regular basis in the lead-up to WrestleMania.

It was a tough night of competition on cable as the opening night of the NBA season had two games eclipse the SmackDown numbers, as did two MLB playoff games, both of which aired at least partly opposite SmackDown. In addition, the premiere of the Roseanne spinoff "The Conners" did over 10 million viewers, as did NCIS. Both of those shows aired opposite SmackDown as well.

In the 18-49 demo, where SmackDown usually tops the cable ratings, the show finished fifth with a 0.92 rating in the demo, trailing all four sports games. The rating was well above the usual 0.70-0.75 the show does most weeks.

This was also the first week since June 12 that SmackDown's ratings increased year-over-year. Here's a look at the last 10 weeks of SmackDown numbers and how they compare to last year: