Friday Night SmackDown up from prior week, second lowest 18-49 of 2022

20220506_SD_final2--118ca8527b72556d282993cbb7a61ad8 — Photo Courtesy: WWE

Friday Night SmackDown saw a week-to-week increase but still finished with its second-lowest demo audience of 2022.

The May 6^th go-home edition before WrestleMania Backlash averaged 1,998,000 viewers with approximately 600,000 (0.46) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.

AEW Rampage, moved to 5:30-6:30pm, Friday on TNT:
292,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.11
Lowest of any Rampage episode since August debut.

WWE Smackdown on Fox, 8-10pm:
1,998,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.46
Up 22% in P18-49 from last week.

📊 https://t.co/1SscdBCXgG pic.twitter.com/wK0v9fiutV

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) May 9, 2022

On a week-to-week comparison, viewership increased by two percent while the 18-49 audience jumped 22 percent from last week’s low point of 143,000 for a taped edition going against the NBA playoffs.

However, this week’s figures represent the second-lowest 18-49 number of 2022 and the third-lowest overall viewership average.

The NBA continued to dominate with SmackDown airing against the Miami vs. Philadelphia game that averaged 3,834,000 and 1.28 in 18-49 on ESPN and against the first 12 minutes of the late game between Phoenix and Dallas that finished first on cable with 4,478,000 and 1.59 respectively. There were also NHL playoff games airing on TNT and TBS in opposition to SmackDown.

Among network programs, SmackDown was equal to ABC’s Shark Tank with 0.46 in the key demo. SmackDown was first among 18-34 of the major networks with 0.34.

In 18-34, SmackDown did its best number in that demo since the episode following WrestleMania 38.

This week’s episode was the go-home show for WrestleMania Backlash featuring RK-Bro appearing on the program and a match between Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura.

In Canada, the show was moved to OLN and only averaged 29,000 viewers. Sportsnet 360 aired a replay on Saturday at Noon Eastern that averaged 36,000 viewers. The OLN airs have drastically hurt WWE’s audiences for both Raw and Friday Night SmackDown with Sportsnet 360 having its playoff commitments.