WWE Smackdown viewership: Did the lack of The Rock and C.M. Punk cause viewership to plummet?

Friday's WWE Smackdown television show averaged 2.973 million viewers, according to Zap2It.com. Friday's viewership was down from the 3.03 million average draw the previous week. [Thanks to Dot Net reader Darius Malcisky]

Powell's POV: The previous week featured the final hype for the Royal Rumble and included appearances by The Rock and C.M. Punk. Thus, the fact that this week's show featured less star power and still drew nearly three million ratings has to be considered good news. We hope to have the final rating information later today.