WWE and AEW had stiff competition this past Friday airing against the NFL on Peacock.
The major event on Friday was a game between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles from Sao Paulo, Brazil, which streamed on Peacock and in the team’s local markets. NBC issued a press release stating that the game attracted 14.2 million viewers across those platforms up from the December 23, 2023, Peacock exclusive game that averaged 7.3 million.
The final edition of Friday Night SmackDown on Fox fell to the show’s second-lowest audience ever on the network by averaging 1,770,000 viewers and 599,000 (0.45) in the 18-49 demographic. It was a 14% decline in viewers and a 16% drop in the demographic, yet still ranked first in the key demo on Friday night.
The only show to produce a lower audience on Fox was a “Best of” show from December 29, 2023, which averaged 1,355,000 and 0.28 airing against the Cotton Bowl.
There was a bright spot for SmackDown as the show averaged 274,700 viewers and 112,500 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360 in Canada. It was SmackDown’s largest audience in Canada since April 5, 2024, going into WrestleMania 40.
AEW hosted a 3 ½ hour block of programming on TNT this past Friday with Collision airing head-to-head against SmackDown. It resulted in the show’s lowest numbers ever with 157,000 viewers and 58,000 (0.04) in the demo, which were down 46% and 58% respectively from its previous episode on its normal night of Saturday.
The main event was an All-Star 8-Man Tag with Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta & PAC against The Young Bucks, Jack Perry & Kazuchika Okada, which lasted over 28 minutes and bled into the Rampage portion.
Rampage averaged 233,000 viewers and 111,000 (0.08) in the 18-49 demographic, which were increases of 7% and 17% respectively from last Friday’s episode.
U.S. viewership data courtesy: Wrestlenomics
