WWE SmackDown draws second-best viewership since April

[Big Red Machine]

https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/wwe- ... ril-331216

By Paul Fontaine | @PaulAceFontaine | Jan 25, 2021 3:14 pm

Friday night's edition of SmackDown on Fox averaged 2.383 million viewers, up 5.3 percent from the previous week.

With the exception of the Christmas night edition of the show that had the benefit of a huge lead-in from the NFL, this was the highest viewership for SmackDown since its WrestleMania go-home show last April.

Fox still finished at the bottom of the networks in terms of total viewers. In the 18-49 demo, SmackDown's 0.63 rating was down six percent from the previous week. It placed second for the night on all of television, only behind ABC's Shark Tank. Nothing on cable topped SmackDown in the key demo.

In the 18-34 demo, SmackDown drew a 0.34 rating, down 5.6 percent from the previous week. That tied Shark Tank for the top spot among all network programming. It also beat everything on cable.

Year-over-year, SmackDown continues to hold up very well compared to other WWE programming. Overall viewership was down 2.7 percent year-over-year, the rating in the 18-49 demo was down 10 percent, and the rating in the 18-34 demo was down 15 percent.