As WWE Money in the Bank in Los Angeles, California on June 7 edges ever closer, the May 30 episode of "WWE SmackDown" looked to get fans even more excited for the company's next Premium Live Event with another loaded night of action. Je'Von Evans made his main roster debut teaming with Rey Fenix in a losing effort against Los Garza, R-Truth wrestled his final WWE match before his departure in a loss to JC Mateo, and both Andrade and Naomi qualified for the men's and women's Money in the Bank ladder matches by winning two qualifying matches.
With no sporting competition on May 30, "SmackDown" looked to bounce back from two consecutive weeks of lower than average viewership on the USA Network. However, according to The Programming Insider, nothing actually changed as the May 30 episode averaged a total of 1,383,000 viewers, the exact same number as the May 23 episode. This also meant that the show sat less than 1% (1,000 viewers to be exact) below the trailing four week average of 1,384,000 viewers, leading to "SmackDown" placing in tenth place for the evening across all stations in total viewership numbers.
On the other hand, "SmackDown" did see a boost in the 18-49 demographic, posting a 0.34 number, a 3% rise on the previous week's 0.33. While a 0.34 number is 8% below the trailing four week average of 0.37, it was enough to see "SmackDown" top the charts in the demographic rankings for Friday night across both cable and network telecasts, with "SmackDown" also topping the 25-54 demographic charts with a 0.49 number. The margin of victory in the 18-49 demo was even bigger in the cable rankings alone as the nearest show to "SmackDown" was the College Softball World Series on ESPN which posted a 0.17.
