Friday Night SmackDown aired against the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, which knocked the program out of its first-place spot on television that night.
The March 17th episode averaged 2,258,000 viewers and approximately 770,000 (0.59) in the 18-49 demographic, per Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
The numbers fell by three and seven percent respectively from last week’s program and represented SmackDown’s lowest viewership since January 20 and lowest 18-49 audience since February 17.
SmackDown ranked fourth among network programming behind CBS’ coverage of the basketball tournament. WWE also aired against back-to-back games on TNT including the giant FDU vs. Purdue game that did 4.4 million viewers and 1.27 in the demo on TNT against the first hour of SmackDown. SmackDown also aired against Drake vs. Miami on TBS (2.14 million viewers and 0.67 in the demo), Canyon vs. Gonzaga on TruTV (879,000 and 0.24), and the World Baseball Classic on FS 1 (792,000 and 0.31).
SmackDown managed to post a five percent increase among adults 18-34 from the previous week but dropped by 13 percent with adults 35-49.
In Canada, SmackDown averaged 253,400 viewers and 94,500 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. It was a drop of 16 percent in viewership from last week’s massive number, while also falling by 38 percent in the demo. The show ranked third among sports programs on Friday behind the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Carolina Hurricanes and an episode of SportsCentre.
