Friday Night SmackDown ended the year with its largest audience in two years due to John Cena’s return to the ring.
The December 30th episode from Tampa averaged 2,629,000 viewers and approximately 842,000 (0.64) in the 18-49 demographic, and was first among network programming and only trailing the college bowl coverage on ESPN that night. (Data from Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily).
It was SmackDown’s largest audience since Christmas Day of 2020, which had a huge lead-in from an NFL game that boosted its average to 3.3 million viewers and 0.96 in the demo. Before that show, the largest audience was on Feb. 28, 2020, which was another John Cena return.
The audience grew 11 percent and increased by 17 percent in the demo from the week prior. The growth was attributed to the male viewership that grew 31 percent in 18-49, 11 percent in 18-34, and 44 percent in 35-49. Conversely, women in those same demos decreased by 4 percent, 8 percent, and 12 percent respectively.
Wrestlenomics reported on the quarter hours from SmackDown with the high point of the show being the main event tag with John Cena & Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns & Sami Zayn averaged 2,832,000 viewers and 952,000 in the 18-49 audience.
SmackDown aired against the Orange Bowl game between Tennessee and Clemson topped all of television with 8.59 million viewers and 2.0 in the demo on ESPN.
