Friday Night SmackDown moved to FS 1 this past week and ranked fifth among cable originals.
The December 2nd edition of SmackDown averaged 902,000 viewers and approximately 326,000 (0.25) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
The last time SmackDown aired on FS 1 was on October 28th of this year and this past Friday’s episode grew 8% in viewership and was up by 8% in the key demo from that last airing on the network.
SmackDown was moved to the cable outlet due to Fox’s coverage of the Pac-12 Championship, which averaged 6.2 million viewers and 1.57 in the 18-49 demo, which was easily the most-watched program on television that night.
SmackDown was fifth on cable behind back-to-back NBA games on ESPN, the late edition of SportsCenter, and FS 1’s coverage of the World Cup game between Serbia and Switzerland. SmackDown did edge out the morning game between Ghana and Uruguay.
In Canada, SmackDown only aired on Sportsnet 360 as opposed to being simulcast on the Fox affiliate and averaged 136,300 viewers and 66,700 in the 25-54 demographic, which ranked ninth among sports programs that day in the country. It was up from the previous week’s figures of 116,000 and 39,000 respectively.
SmackDown included the World Cup final between Ricochet and Santos Escobar, which headlined the show and the fallout from the Survivor Series.
