Friday Night SmackDown and AEW Rampage each saw large increases to kick off the new year.
The New Year’s Revolution edition of SmackDown from Vancouver averaged 2,465,000 viewers and 882,000 (0.67) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Wrestlenomics.
Since last week’s program was a ‘Best of’ show, we compared this week’s show from two weeks ago, SmackDown grew 25% in viewership and increased by 21% in the 18-49 demographic hitting its largest numbers in those categories since September 15 for the show featuring an appearance by The Rock.
In the 18-49 demo, female viewership grew 43% to 323,000 viewers and males jumped by 12% to 559,000 from the December 22 episode.
Adults increased by 30% to 320,000 viewers – also its highest since September 15.
Adults 35-49 saw a 17% uptick from two weeks ago and averaged 561,000 viewers with the gain primarily due to female viewership in the demo growing from 141,000 to 214,000 while males only saw a minor increase.
In Canada, the show averaged 215,900 viewers and 86,000 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360, which was nearly identical to the December 19 episode. SmackDown ranked third among sports programming on Friday behind the World Junior Championships gold medal game between the U.S. and Sweden, and the Toronto Raptors vs. Sacramento Kings.
SmackDown included the return of Roman Reigns just days after The Rock’s appearance on Raw and teasing a future match between the two. It was headlined by a triple-threat match involving Randy Orton, AJ Styles & LA Knight.
Wrestlenomics reported that the peak quarter was during the final fifteen minutes of the show with the triple threat main event averaging 2,623,000 viewers and 969,000 in the 18-49 demographic, which grew 9% and 12% respectively from the prior quarter.
AEW Rampage also performed well this past Friday with its largest audience since October.
The January 5 episode averaged 406,000 viewers and 181,000 (0.14) in the 18-49 demographic, per Wrestlenomics.
The viewership increased by 25% and the 18-49 audience improved by 21% from last week’s show – the largest numbers for Rampage since October 13.
In the 18-49 demo, males grew from 97,000 to 116,000 and females rose from 52,000 to 65,000.
Adults 18-34 had a big increase of 37% to 67,000, which also hit its highest mark since October 13.
Adults 35-49 increased from 100,000 to 114,000 viewers.
The show was headlined by an ROH Pure Championship match between Wheeler Yuta and Komander and opened with a Trios match as The Hardys teamed with Mark Briscoe against Kip Sabian, The Butcher & The Blade.
Wrestlenomics noted the top performer quarter was from 9:30 – 9:45 p.m. ET for the ending of Hikaru Shida vs. Anna Jay and the backstage segment with Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett with 423,000 viewers and 188,000 in the demo.
