WWE SmackDown back over two million viewers in overnight ratings

[Big Red Machine]

https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/wwe- ... ngs-326821

By Paul Fontaine | @PaulAceFontaine | Dec 5, 2020 12:34 pm

After dipping below the mark for last Friday's Thanksgiving weekend episode, SmackDown climbed back over two million viewers this week in the overnight ratings, averaging 2.029 million viewers on Fox last night.

Last night's SmackDown averaged 2.053 million viewers in the first hour and dropped two percent to 2.004 million in the second hour, despite advertising Roman Reigns & Jey Uso vs. Kevin Owens & Otis for the main event.

Final numbers will be released on Monday. In recent weeks, the final viewership has climbed about 10 percent on average, which would put SmackDown around the 2.2 million mark if that holds true this week. Aside from last week, that would be the lowest overnight number for the show since October 16.

In the 18-49 demo, last night's SmackDown averaged a 0.5 rating. That tied many other shows on the networks for second place behind ABC's Shark Tank, which did a 0.6 rating. The overnight demo number for SmackDown was down 9.1 percent from last week.

It's notable that AEW Dynamite, on a cable station and airing directly against another wrestling show, drew a 0.42 rating this Wednesday.

In 18-34, SmackDown drew the same 0.3 rating it did last week. That tied ABC's Blue Bloods for the top mark on the networks. Dynamite drew a 0.26 in that category this week.

SmackDown's overnight viewership was down 17 percent from the same week last year. The show was down 28.6 percent in 18-49 and 33.3 percent in 18-34 year-over-year.