Friday Night SmackDown finished first on television this past Friday while AEW Rampage was hurt airing outside its regular time.
The February 17th edition of SmackDown from Montreal averaged 2,383,000 viewers and approximately 756,000 (0.58) in the 18-49 demographic. (Showbuzz Daily and Wrestlenomics)
It was first among all television programs on Friday despite the 18-49 audience dropping by 10 percent for the go-home episode going into Elimination Chamber card.
The show aired against TNT’s coverage of the NBA All-Star weekend festivities, which represented the top two cable programs for the night.
It was SmackDown’s lowest 18-49 and overall audience since January 20th with the key demo seeing a 13 percent decline among women and an eight percent drop among men.
Among adults 18-34, the decline was eight percent with male viewership declining by 19 percent in the demo while females increased by 15 percent from the previous week.
Adults 35-49 dropped by 11 percent, largely due to females in the demo decreasing 24 percent from last week which was its lowest female audience in that demo since December 30, 2022.
With the show taking place in Canada, the audience on Sportsnet 360 was huge with an average of 295,200 viewers and 138,800 in the 25-54 demographic, which would be the largest audience for the show in Canada in well over a year. The show was third among sports programs on Friday behind Curling and the New York Rangers vs. Edmonton Oilers.
Outside of its normal time slot due to TNT’s coverage of the NBA All-Star festivities, AEW Rampage saw a huge loss in its audience.
The taped episode from Laredo averaged 287,000 viewers and 87,000 (0.07) in the 18-49 demographic, ranking #59 among cable originals on Friday.
These would represent the lowest numbers in the history of Rampage including other editions that aired outside the normal time.
Rampage aired at 7 p.m. ET on TNT and saw a 23.5 percent drop in viewership and a 43.5 percent loss in the key demo from the previous week’s episode.
In 2022, Rampage aired at 7 p.m. twice. The April 15th show averaged 482,000 viewers and 0.22 in the demo, and the May 20th show averaged 410,000 viewers and 0.14 in the demo, so this past week’s show didn’t come close to prior episodes in the same time slot.
The show included a rematch between The Elite against Top Flight & AR Fox.
