Friday Night SmackDown fell to its lowest audience of the year for the taped edition going into Elimination Chamber.
The February 23 episode – taped in Salt Lake City the previous week – averaged 2,272,000 viewers and 812,000 viewers (0.62) in the 18-49 demographic, per Wrestlenomics and Sports Media Watch.
The audience fell by 11 percent this week with the 18-49 demographic dropping by 18 percent – the lowest figures since December.
SmackDown beat everything in sports for the night, including both NBA games on ESPN. The head-to-head game between Cleveland and Philadelphia averaged 1.2 million viewers and 0.38 in the 18-49 demo and the late game between Milwaukee and Minnesota averaged 1,203,000 and 0.41.
In Canada, the show increased with 203,400 viewers and 79,800 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. The numbers grew 9 percent and 25 percent respectively from the previous week, which was a live edition featuring The Rock. SmackDown ranked fourth among sports for the night in Canada behind Curling coverage on TSN, and the Toronto Raptors vs. Atlanta Hawks. SmackDown ranked second in the demo behind the NBA game.
AEW Rampage returned to its regular time slot on TNT and averaged 364,000 viewers and 147,000 (0.11) in the 18-49 demographic.
Last week’s show aired at 7 p.m. ET, so if you compare it with two weeks ago, the audience was down by 20 percent and the demo declined by 21 percent.
Adults 18-34 fell from 56,000 viewers two weeks ago to 43,000.
Adults 35-49 dropped from 130,000 to 104,000.
The show was headlined by Roderick Strong beating Jake Hager and included a quick match involving The Young Bucks, and a Triple Threat Trios match.
