Friday Night SmackDown was the top-rated program of the night while AEW Rampage returned to its regular slot on TNT.
Without NBA or NHL competition, SmackDown cruised to the top of the television rankings this past Friday with 2,158,000 viewers and 0.52 in the 18-49 demographic.
While SmackDown was a taped show from the week prior in South Carolina, it dominated the night with its closest competition coming from Univision, which did a 0.33 and 0.34 for its 8-9 and 9-10 p.m. ET slots.
SmackDown was up by one percent in its viewership from the live episode the week prior while dropping by two percent in the 18-49 demo.
SmackDown also saw a seven percent drop among adults 18-34 and was identical among the 35-49 category.
The key was the NBA and NHL having the night off. WWE SmackDown will go against the NBA Finals with Game 4 scheduled for 6/9 between the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets.
In Canada, SmackDown averaged 150,000 viewers and 48,700 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360, which ranked sixth among sports programs that night. The numbers were up from 120,000 and 42,000 in the demo the previous week.
For the first time since early April, AEW Rampage aired at 10 p.m. ET on TNT, although the promotion was unable to advertise it on Dynamite until the outcome of the NHL game was known.
The May 26 episode averaged 436,000 viewers and 143,000 (0.11) in the key demo and ranked #13 among cable originals.
It was the show’s largest viewership since April 14 (which benefited from a large lead-in from the NBA coverage) and the largest 18-49 audience since a Saturday night episode on April 22.
The show was up 48 percent in viewership and 27 percent in the 18-49 demo from last Friday’s episode, which aired at 6:30 p.m. ET on TNT. There was also a large increase of 40 percent among adults 18-34.
Cable was down across the board with the largest demo audience topping out at 0.16 while Rampage ranked among the top ten with adults 18-34 and males 18-49. ESPN occupied twelve of the top fifteen spots on cable.
Rampage is listed for this Friday at 10 p.m. ET on the TNT schedule.
Data courtesy: Showbuzz Daily & Wrestlenomics
