Friday Night SmackDown finished first on television for another week despite several market interruptions due to the NFL pre-season game.
The August 26th show from Detroit averaged 1,990,000 viewers and approximately 626,000 viewers (0.48) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
The 18-49 audience represented a three-week high for the program and an increase of 2% from last week’s show despite overall viewership dropping by 4.5% this week. Among adults 18-34, the show was up 16%, which was also a three-week high.
Brandon Thurston noted that SmackDown was pre-empted in several markets including Charlotte, Portland, New Orleans, and Las Vegas due to the Seattle Seahawks vs. Dallas Cowboys game. This was the third consecutive week where SmackDown was interrupted in several markets.
SmackDown ranked first among all television programs on Friday with its closest competitor being ABC’s 20/20 which did 0.38 in 18-49.
The live episode from Detroit featured Drew McIntyre taking on Sami Zayn in the main event and multiple appearances by Roman Reigns throughout the episode.
This Friday’s show is a rare taped edition of the show due to the crew going to Wales for Saturday’s premium live event. It will include a “two-year celebration” of Roman Reigns winning the Universal Championship.
In Canada, SmackDown had a sizeable weekly decline averaging 125,200 viewers and 52,000 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360, down from 219,300 and 170,500 respectively last week. It was SmackDown’s lowest audience in Canada since July 29th.
This week’s show ranked eighth among Canada’s sports programs on Friday, led by the Toronto Blue Jays vs. L.A. Angels and CFL football.
