The penultimate edition of Friday Night SmackDown before WrestleMania ranked first in prime time on cable this past week.
The April 11 edition from Seattle averaged 1,551,000 viewers and 603,000 viewers (0.45) in the 18-49 demographic. The audience fell by 2% from the previous week, while the core demo dropped by 4%. However, it was against lesser competition this week and won the night on cable.
In the 18-49 demographic, male viewership dropped 16%, from 417,000 viewers last week to 350,000. Female viewership in the demo followed the opposite trend, up 26%, from 207,000 viewers to 260,000.
The main sports competition for the evening was a UFL game between the Arlington Renegades and Birmingham Stallions on Fox, which averaged 993,000 viewers and 0.20 in the 18-49 demo.
On cable, SmackDown topped Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News (0.18), RuPaul’s Drag Race on MTV (0.17), a replay of Round 2 of the Masters Golf tournament on ESPN (0.16), and Gutfeld on Fox News (0.15).
Friday’s episode included Randy Orton teaming with LA Knight against Solo Sikoa & Tama Tonga in the main event, and the women’s tag team gauntlet match that took up a sizable portion of the first hour.
This week’s show is the final episode before WrestleMania, with Cody Rhodes and John Cena advertised to appear in Las Vegas.
Data: Wrestlenomics & Programming Insider
