Dave Meltzer Calls WWE Saturday Night's Main Event Viewership 'A Disappointment'

WWE Saturday Night's Main Event made its long-awaited return to NBC on December 14, with the show producing many memorable moments like Jesse Ventura's return to commentary, Chelsea Green winning the WWE Women's United States Championship, and Cody Rhodes finally getting to wear the 'Winged Eagle' belt to the ring. However, the ratings were not as high as some people imagined, averaging 1,590,000 viewers, and earning a 0.42 number in the 18-49 demographic. 

Dave Meltzer talked about these figures on "Wrestling Observer Radio," and believes that WWE will be disappointed.

"There was competition, but this thing was promoted so hard that ... it has to be considered a disappointment." 

The competition in question was the Heisman Trophy presentation on ESPN, which won the night in both average viewers and in key demographics and the NBA Cup semi-finals between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder on ABC. Despite having the advantage of being on network television for the first time since September when "WWE SmackDown" was on FOX, Saturday Night's Main Event performed worse in the ratings on network television than "SmackDown" produced while being on cable. 

WWE will hope to improve on those numbers when Saturday Night's Main Event returns on January 25, with the second installment of the event taking place at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. No matches have been announced for the show as WWE is putting all of its focus on "Raw's" move to Netflix on January 6. But given that the 2025 Royal Rumble Premium Live Event will take place seven days after WWE's trip to San Antonio, the next edition of Saturday Night's Main Event will likely be one of the first stops on the road to WrestleMania 41.

Please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.