Despite a major stipulation and the Universal Championship being defended, Friday Night SmackDown had one of its lowest numbers of the year.
This past Friday’s edition of the show featuring Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan with Bryan forced to leave SmackDown if he lost, led to an average of 2,018,000 viewers and a 0.49 in the 18-49 demographic on FOX, according to Showbuzz Daily.
It was SmackDown’s lowest 18-49 rating of 2021 with the previous low of 0.53 on the New Year’s Day edition of the show. The overall viewership was its third-lowest of 2021.
SmackDown’s primary competition was the second night of the NFL Draft that was broadcast on ABC and ESPN. The ABC broadcast averaged 2,061,000 viewers and a 0.47 in the main demo while ESPN did 2,591,000 and a 0.91 for its coverage and finishing first on cable for Friday.
SmackDown edged out ABC’s coverage of the draft for the top spot among the 18-49 demo among network programming but far more watched the draft when you factor the ESPN audience into the viewership. SmackDown finished with a 0.30 in the 18-34 demo, which was also the top network figure.
For the month of April, SmackDown averaged 2,129,000 viewers and 0.55 in the 18-49 demo. This included the WrestleMania-themed edition of SmackDown on April 9th heading into WrestleMania Weekend.
In Canada, SmackDown did 213,200 viewers and 113,000 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. Their viewership was way up this week from last week’s average of 138,400. This week, SmackDown’s sports competition in Canada included the Toronto Blue Jays vs. Atlanta Braves and Winnipeg Jets vs. Montreal Canadiens games, as well as curling coverage.
