SMACKDOWN TOPS FRIDAY’S PROGRAMMING
Friday Night SmackDown topped all of television on its night while AEW Collision hit a two-month high for its first episode in Arlington, Texas.
This past Friday’s episode of SmackDown from Omaha, Nebraska, averaged 2,313,000 viewers and 857,000 (0.65) in the 18-49 demographic, ranking first among all programming on television in the 18-49 demographic by a wide margin. The closest network program was Jeopardy Masters with a 0.28 on ABC while Fox News occupied three of the top four cable rankings.
SmackDown experienced a two percent decline in overall viewership and an eight percent drop among the key demos from the previous week. In the 18-49 demo, females dropped from 0.52 to 0.42 this week while males had a small increase from 0.88 to 0.89.
The show averaged 203,800 viewers and 80,600 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360 in Canada. It ranked third among sports programming on Friday and second in the demo behind the Winnipeg Blue Bombers vs. Saskatchewan Roughriders, but it beat the other CFL game between Edmonton and Ottawa in the demo.
A STRONGER RAMPAGE LINEUP DOESN’T LEAD TO INCREASE
AEW Rampage averaged 284,000 viewers and 136,000 (0.10) in the 18-49 demographic, which was its lowest audience since June 7 and a three-week low in the demo.
In the 18-49 demo, female viewership dropped by 15 percent and males declined by 10 percent from the previous week.
Adults 18-34 had a steep decline of 54 percent from an average of 43,000 viewers last week to 20,000 on Friday.
Rampage had a stronger lineup including matches with Chris Jericho, Lucha Bros., Minoru Suzuki, Orange Cassidy, Kyle O’Reilly & Tomohiro Ishii.
Its head-to-head competition included Gutfeld, which topped the night for cable programming on Fox News and the WNBA 3-Point and Skill Challenge on ESPN.
COLLISION POSTS STRONGEST AUDIENCE SINCE MAY
Saturday’s edition of Collision was the first of its summer residency at the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The debut at the venue saw Collision average 472,000 viewers and 193,000 (0.15) in the 18-49 demographic, which represented increases of 30 percent and five percent respectively over the previous week’s program.
It was Collision’s largest audience since May 18 and the highest figure in the key demo since May 25.
In the 18-49 demo, there was a 13 percent gain among its male viewership this week to offset a 14 percent decline among females in the category.
Adults 18-34 increased from 62,000 to 67,000 viewers, which was another example of the male increase offsetting a female decline. Males in the demo increased by 24 percent while females dropped by 16 percent.
Adults 35-49 saw a modest increase from 122,000 to 126,000 this week. Males in the demo increased by nine percent and females fell by 13 percent.
Data: Programming Insider, Wrestlenomics, PW Torch & POST Wrestling
