Friday Night SmackDown achieved its second-largest audience on FS1 on a night when they moved from Fox due to the World Series.
Airing on cable for the second time in 2023, Friday Night SmackDown averaged 1,145,000 viewers and 0.35 in the 18-49 demographic, per Sports TV Ratings.
The show from Milwaukee aired against Game 1 of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks on Fox, which averaged 9,172,000 viewers and a 1.95 rating in the key demo. It also aired against the Miami Heat vs. Boston Celtics, which had 1,582,000 viewers and 0.51 in the demo on ESPN.
SmackDown’s viewership and demo audience on FS1 represented its second largest ever on the cable network behind the July 21 episode this past summer, which averaged 1,230,000 viewers and 0.36.
The show on Friday night was promoted around a contract signing between Roman Reigns and LA Knight for their match at Crown Jewel this Saturday and was headlined by Knight against Jimmy Uso.
In Canada, the show had a huge audience while airing against a lot of major sports programming. SmackDown averaged 255,700 viewers and 84,700 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360 (viewers in Canada could not watch the show on their local Fox affiliate due to the World Series and would have helped the SN 360 audience), which was up 29% in viewers and increased by 16% in the demo from last week.
It was SmackDown’s largest audience since March 31. It ranked #5 among sports programming on Friday behind the World Series, Toronto Raptors vs. Chicago Bulls, CFL football, and an NHL game between St. Louis and Vancouver.
AEW Rampage experienced a 7% dip in viewership to 319,000 viewers and 0.09 in the 18-49 demographic on TNT this past Friday night.
In its regular time slot, this would be the third lowest audience of the year for Rampage and its smallest overall audience since July 14.
Rampage also aired against Game 1 of the Texas Rangers vs. Arizona Diamondback and had a stronger NBA game to contend with as the Golden State Warriors faced the Sacramento Kings and averaged 1,760,000 viewers and 0.56 rating in the 18-49 demo on ESPN.
Rampage ranked #21 on Friday among sports programs, according to Sports TV Ratings.
The show was headlined by Konosuke Takeshita over Kyle Fletcher with Fletcher joining the Don Calis Family afterward. The card included a No Disqualification Match between Mike Santana and Ortiz, and Abadon winning a four-way match to earn a championship match with Hikaru Shida the next night.
John Pollock & Wai Ting have a review of the show on Rewind-A-SmackDown from this past Friday night on the POST Wrestling Café
