While airing on a several-hour tape delay, Friday Night SmackDown from France performed at the same level as the previous week’s live episode.
The May 3 episode from the LDLC Arena in Lyon averaged 2,148,000 viewers and 790,000 viewers (0.60) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Programming Insider and Wrestlenomics.
It was SmackDown’s second-lowest figures of the year behind last week’s episode.
The audience was virtually the same as the live draft edition of SmackDown the previous week, which averaged 2,143,000 viewers and a 0.58 rating in the core demo.
For Friday, SmackDown ranked first among network programs and excludes the sports competition on cable, which don’t have figures for yet.
The show averaged 197,100 viewers in Canada and 76,000 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. SmackDown aired on the smaller OLN the previous week and had its lowest audience on Sportsnet 360 since February 16.
The show included a face-to-face segment between Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles before their main event at Backlash the next day.
