Friday Night SmackDown aired against the Cotton Bowl this past week in its new three-hour mat, declining over the previous episode.
The January 10 episode from Portland averaged 1,436,000 viewers and 536,000 viewers (0.40) in the 18-49 demographic on the USA Network from 8 – 11 p.m. ET.
The audience declined by 6% while the core demo fell by 11% from January 3.
Its competition included the Cotton Bowl game between Ohio State and Texas, which generated an audience of 19,598,000 viewers and an astounding 4.95 rating in the 18-49 demo on ESPN and an additional 819,000 viewers and 0.26 on ESPN 2 for the Megacast version.
SmackDown was headlined by Cody Rhodes & Jimmy Uso facing Jacob Fatu & Tama Tonga. It included a pair of championship matches with Shinsuke Nakamura vs. LA Knight and Chelsea Green vs. Michin.
Wrestlenomics reported the quarter hours from the January 3 episode, which was the first three-hour edition of the show with the following hourly breakdown:
8 – 9 p.m. ET: 1.63 million (642k in 18-49)
9 – 10 p.m. ET: 1.57 million (630k)
10 – 11 p.m. ET: 1.39 million (559k)
Data: Wrestlenomics and Programming Insider
