Friday Night SmackDown returned to Fox for a taped edition of the show, which was its lowest in two months.
The taped episode from St. Louis on Friday averaged 2,138,000 viewers and approximately 626,000 (0.48) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
For comparisons, we will look at SmackDown from two weeks ago on Fox rather than last week’s episode on FS 1.
Overall viewership for SmackDown declined by 4% from October 21st with the 18-49 demographic dropping by 8.5%, which are the show’s lowest figures since their last taped show on September 2nd, the day before the Clash at the Castle event in Wales.
Friday Night SmackDown ranked second among network programs behind Univision programming at 9 p.m. ET with SmackDown ranking fourth among 18-34 behind all of Univision’s prime-time programming. The season finale of Young Rock this past March averaged 2.55 million and 0.43 in 18-49 as a comparison to its Tuesday night audience.
SmackDown also aired against the season premiere of Young Rock on NBC, which was moved from Tuesday nights to Fridays on NBC. Young Rock only averaged 1.8 million viewers and 0.26 in the 18-49 demographic, ranking last in the demo among the big four networks in prime time on Friday.
However, in the 18-34 demographic, the show was up 27% from two weeks ago, which is more indicative of a weak number in that demo on October 21st rather than a spike.
Adults 35-49 fell 21% and was its lowest audience in that demo in months.
In Canada, the show fell to 142,200 viewers and 53,900 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360, which was its lowest viewership in Canada since September 23rd. The show still managed to rank fourth among sports programs that night in the country behind the Toronto Raptors vs. Dallas Mavericks, an NHL game between the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes, and curling.
SmackDown was headlined by Gunther defending the Intercontinental Championship against Rey Mysterio in a match that had been promoted for several weeks.
