Heading into the Royal Rumble weekend, Friday Night SmackDown scored its largest audience since September.
The January 26 edition of the show from Miami averaged 2,475,000 viewers and 942,000 (0.71) in the 18-49 demographic, per Wrestlenomics and Sports Media Watch.
It was the show’s largest viewership since September 15, which featured appearances by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at Pat McAfee. It was SmackDown’s biggest audience in the key demo since August 25, which was the tribute show for Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk.
WWE was marred with negative publicity over the previous two days after the lawsuit filed by Janel Grant was made public on Thursday.
SmackDown topped the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on NBC, which averaged 2,207,000 viewers and 0.23 in the demo. There was an NHL game on ESPN that averaged 569,000 viewers and 0.19 in the demo airing against SmackDown as well.
The show was headlined by LA Knight vs. Solo Sikoa and included the Kabuki Warriors winning the Women’s Tag Titles from Katana Chance & Kayden Carter.
In Canada, the show averaged 204,600 viewers and 72,500 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360, which were declines of 16% and 24% respectively from the previous week.
The show ranked second among sports programs in Canada on Friday behind the Toronto Raptors vs. L.A. Clippers and was ahead of two NHL games. WWE Main Event ranked eighth for the night with 88,000 viewers and 29,600 in the 25-54 demo airing immediately after SmackDown.
