The go-home episode of Friday Night SmackDown leading to Sunday’s Royal Rumble experienced a small decrease from the week prior.
The January 29th edition of SmackDown finished with 2,304,000 viewers on Fox and a 0.62 in the 18-49 demographic. It was a small decrease from the previous week’s figures of 2,383,000 and a 0.63 demo rating.
SmackDown topped all network programming in the 18-49 demographic, beating out a repeat edition of Shark Tank on ABC for the top spot. SmackDown was also the top network program in the 18-34 demographic for Friday’s programming with a 0.38.
If you exclude the Christmas edition of SmackDown, which had an abnormal boost due to the NFL lead-in, this past week’s episode was the second most-watched edition of the show since November 6, 2020.
Friday Night SmackDown was promoted around an interview segment involving Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens prior to their Last Man Standing Match at the Royal Rumble. The episode also featured several performers from RAW appearing with AJ Styles, The Miz, and John Morrison as they brought back the quarterly Brand-to-Brand Invitational concept.
In Canada, Friday Night SmackDown averaged 241,800 viewers on Sportsnet 360. The one-hour version of NXT did 75,000 viewers as a lead-in for SmackDown. The most-watched sports program of the night was the Toronto Raptors vs. Sacramento Kings game.
