Friday Night SmackDown saw a small drop for this past week’s episode on the night before the Survivor Series.
Airing the day after U.S. Thanksgiving, SmackDown averaged 2,166,000 viewers and approximately 703,000 (0.54) in the 18-49 demographic according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
Against a variety of sports this past Friday, SmackDown’s viewership and demo audience were down 3%. In the 18-49 demo, males grew 12% this week while women declined by 23%.
It was more pronounced in the 18-34 demo which grew by 19% this week but was assisted by male viewership in the demo increasing by 56% this week and its highest in that category since September 23rd. Female viewership in the 18-34 demo dropped by 24%.
Adults 35-54 dropped by 13% with a male drop of 6% and females down 23% from the previous week.
SmackDown was delayed on Fox for ten minutes due to the network’s coverage of the Pac-12 championship, which gave WWE a big lead-in of 3.7 million viewers and 1.02 in the demo. As a result, SmackDown started late and aired past the 10 p.m. ET hour.
SmackDown ranked fourth among network programming for the night behind Friday Night Football on ABC, Pac-12 coverage on Fox, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas on NBC.
In Canada, SmackDown averaged approximately 116,000 viewers and 39,000 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360.
