Professional wrestling had a strong night on Friday with SmackDown and AEW Rampage performing well.
Friday Night SmackDown was a taped episode from Chicago with an average viewership of 2,376,000 viewers, up 8% from the previous week’s live edition and the show’s largest viewership since September 23rd. In the 18-49 demographic, SmackDown finished first among network programming with approximately 717,000 viewers (0.55) on Fox.
SmackDown also saw a 37% increase among adults 18-34, which was its highest mark since September 23rd.
SmackDown ranked ahead of How the Grinch Stole Christmas on NBC and programming on Univision for the top spot on network television. The show aired against the Wake Forest vs. Missouri game on ESPN that topped cable with 3.54 million viewers and 0.86 in 18-49.
Canadian numbers are delayed due to the holiday.
AEW Rampage hit the show’s highest viewership since April 8th with 566,000 viewers and approximately 235,000 (0.18) in the 18-49 demographic, its largest since September 23rd (this was the two-hour Grand Slam edition where the first hour did 236,000 viewers and the second hour did 208,000 in the key demo. If you combine the two hours as one, that show would fall below this past Friday’s number but the traditional 10-11 p.m. ET hour was higher on 9/23).
Those represent increases of 22% and 19% respectively from the week prior.
The show also saw a major increase among adults 18-34 where they doubled their audience from the week prior and was also its highest in the demo since April.
In the 18-49 demo, the increase was due to the male audience improving by 33% while the female audience had a slight decline of 1%.
Rampage ranked fifth among cable originals behind the two college football games on ESPN, the Memphis Grizzlies vs. Phoenix Sums, and the late edition of SportsCenter.
Data courtesy: Showbuzz Daily & Wrestlenomics
