The viewership for last night's "premiere" episode of WWE Backstage has been released and it makes for grim reading.

The heavily advertised episode which aired at 11 pm EST on Fox Sport 1 scored just only 49,000 viewers, according to PWInsider. 

The first preview episode drew 597,000 viewers, whilst the second that aired after last week’s Friday Night SmackDown drew 426,000 viewers. It should be noted both of these shows had strong leads, with the American League Championship Series and an episode of SmackDown respectively.

However, such a drop and low number will indeed panic WWE officials and no doubt FOX executives into working out what went wrong and how they can improve on that number for future episodes.

Discuss your reaction to the low rating on the new WNS Forum.

We'll keep you updated.