Friday Night SmackDown following the Royal Rumble saw a decrease going against coverage of the Winter Olympics.
The February 4th edition of the show from Oklahoma City averaged 2,151,000 viewers and approximately 667,000 (0.51) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
Viewership dropped by 4 percent while the demo figure was down by 8.5 percent. Excluding Christmas Eve, it was their lowest numbers on Fox since December 10, 2021.
SmackDown was second for the night among network programming, which was dominated by NBC’s coverage of the Olympics that generated 1.97 in the 18-49 demographic and averaged 10,758,000 viewers. The USA Network had additional Olympics coverage throughout the night with 1,447,000 viewers and 0.32 in 18-49.
The top programming on cable was the NHL All-Star festivities from Las Vegas that did 0.40 in 18-49 and 1,086,000 viewers on ESPN.
SmackDown saw a decline of 13 percent in its 18-34 audience including a 21.5 percent drop with females in the demo. Its 35-49 audience fell by 6.5 percent this week.
The post-Rumble episode featured Ronda Rousey selecting Charlotte Flair as her opponent for WrestleMania 38, which was promoted in advance.
In Canada, the show was nearly identical to the week prior with 114,900 viewers and 56,000 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360.
