Friday Night SmackDown from the empty WWE Performance Center led to the program’s second-highest viewership of the year, based on the overnight figures.
The two-hour broadcast on Fox averaged 2,588,000 viewers on Fox, their second-highest of the year behind the February 28th edition that also featured John Cena appearing. The final number reflecting the entire country will be out in a few days.
This week’s episode had the curiosity of what the show would look like without fans in attendance coupled with an appearance by John Cena and Jeff Hardy’s first match since last April.
The show did a 0.7 in the 18-49 demographic equaling the viewership of 20/20 on ABC, and CBS’s airings of Hawaii Five-O and Blue Bloods. They were tied for second on the night in that demo behind Shark Tank on ABC.
Given the state of the country, it’s uncharted water in terms of what this will mean for WWE programming if they continue running new episodes while other sports leagues have suspended or cancelled their seasons.
In need of content, ESPN is airing a replay today of UFC 246 from January featuring Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone ahead of today’s live card from Brasilia.
