On the night before the WWE Royal Rumble, Friday Night SmackDown returned to normal levels after a strong week previously.
The January 28th edition of the show averaged 2,217,000 viewers and approximately 729,000 (0.56) in the 18-49 demographic, courtesy of Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
Last week was an exceptionally strong demo figure of 836,000 viewers, so this week it dropped 13 percent but was in line with the previous episodes in January and above December levels. In overall viewership, they only dropped 2 percent this week.
The show’s 18-49 rating was tied with ABC’s Shark Tank, although Thurston notes that SmackDown was second for the day comparing both viewership numbers.
Despite falling 13.5 percent in 18-34, SmackDown was #1 among network programs.
Its 35-49 audience declined by 12 percent.
The show was promoted around another face-to-face segment between Universal Champion Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins before their championship match the next night.
In Canada, SmackDown averaged 146,500 viewers and 55,900 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360, which are down from the previous week’s figures of 158,700 and 87,800 respectively.
For the month of January, SmackDown averaged 2,229,000 viewers and 763,000 viewers in 18-49.
