Friday Night SmackDown ranked second among all television programming in the core demo this past week while AEW Rampage returned to its normal range.
The September 27 edition of SmackDown from Sacramento averaged 1,568,000 viewers and approximately 603,000 viewers (0.45) in the 18-49 demographic, per Programming Insider & Wrestlenomics.
Viewership increased by 5% for its third week since moving to the USA Network and the 18-49 audience was flat.
SmackDown topped everything on broadcast in the 18-49 demographic and ranked second on television behind ESPN’s coverage of the Virginia Tech vs. Miami game, which had 3,259,000 viewers and 0.93 in the demo.
Fox aired a game between Rutgers and Washington in SmackDown’s old time slot and averaged 1,929,000 viewers and 0.38 in the core demo.
AEW Rampage was coming off one of its best figures in months last week but returned this past Friday with an average of 276,000 viewers and 107,000 viewers (0.08) in the 18-49 demographic.
The audience dropped by 16% while the 18-49 demographic fell by 34%.
In the demo, male viewership dropped from 108,000 viewers to 67,000 and females decreased from 53,000 to 40,000.
Rampage was #15 among prime-time cable programs on Friday in the demo.
Friday’s episode was taped six nights prior and featured Willow Nightingale over Taya Valkyrie in the main event and opened with House of Black over Lio Rush & Action Andretti.
