The 1000-day celebration of Roman Reigns’ championship win was a major draw this past Friday.
The June 2 edition of Friday Night SmackDown in Wilkes-Barre averaged 2,563,000 viewers and 955,000 (0.73) in the 18-49 demographic and dominated everything on television on Friday. (Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily).
The audience increase from the previous week’s taped episode was 19 percent and its highest audience since December 20, 2022, when John Cena teamed with Kevin Owens against Roman Reigns & Sami Zayn.
In the 18-49 demographic, SmackDown increased by 42 percent and was its highest audience in the demo since December 25, 2020, for a show that was boosted by a massive lead-in from the NFL. Prior to the Christmas Day edition of SmackDown, it was SmackDown’s best demo audience since March 20, 2020, featuring Rob Gronkowski making his debut.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics reported that the final quarter of the show did a massive audience of 2.9 million viewers and 1.13 million in the 18-49 demographic. The last thirty minutes of SmackDown featuring the Reigns celebration averaged 2.8 million viewers and 1.09 million in the demo.
SmackDown was first among all programming on Friday with an ABC Special Report finishing second with a 0.38 in the demo and back-to-back college softball games topping the cable charts.
In the 18-49 demo, male viewership spiked by 58 percent from the previous week while females grew by 33 percent.
Adults 18-34 saw a 61 percent increase from the previous week including an 86 percent jump with women in the demo.
Adults 35-49 grew by 32 percent.
In Canada, SmackDown was not as successful with a normal set of numbers as the show averaged 129,500 viewers and 62,400 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360 and finished sixth among sports programming on Friday. Overall viewership actually dropped by 14 percent from the previous week’s taped episode, however, the demo grew by 28 percent this week.
The competition in Canada was not as bad considering the NHL and NBA had the night off. The top sports programs for the night were the Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Mets and a CFL pre-season game between Saskatchewan and Winnipeg.
