Early market specific ratings for WWE SmackDown, AEW Rampage

By Dave Meltzer
Published: 23 Aug 2021, 09:54

Image: WWE

Here are some early market-by-market notes for Friday’s WWE SmackDown and AEW Rampage shows.

WWE SmackDown

The early SmackDown numbers once again included several Fox stations that aired NFL preseason games instead of SmackDown. With the market differences, both the prelims and final numbers are skewed. The early numbers include NFL in some markets, but not as many as last week while the later numbers are affected by markets not airing the show.

The best comparison is markets airing the show. Last week’s number was going to be very high, but the loss of key cities put it back into normal range. This week’s markets preempting the show were different, so these are major market comparisons.

For homes in the top ten markets as compared to last week (direct numbers with no NFL): New York was down in homes 40%, Los Angeles was down 26%, Chicago was the same, Philadelphia was up 7%, Dallas was up 29%, San Francisco was the same, Houston was down 17% and DC was down 16%,

In 18-49, New York was down 30%, Los Angeles was down 15%, Chicago was down 8%, Philadelphia was down 44%, San Francisco was up 125%, Houston was down 50% and DC was up 25%.

AEW Rampage

Based on the top ten markets, households were up 57.5% from the debut week while 18-49 was up 50%.

A correction from our Saturday night show when we said Chicago did a 1.3 rating, it was actually a 1.1 rating but scored a 1.3 in 18-49, which is actually more impressive and phenomenal.

That also greatly skewed the top ten so the increases are probably going to be less than indicated.

Chicago was up 53% in homes watching and 160% in 18-49 from week one. Dallas doubled its first weekend while DC was up 250% in homes. Atlanta and DC also more than doubled in 18-49 but most other markets were only marginally up.

Including Chicago (1.6 rating to 1.1 rating), AEW did not beat Smackdown in total homes viewing, although obviously with a show on a broadcast network, you have a huge edge.

AEW did beat SmackDown 1.3 to 1.2 in Chicago in 18-49 and slightly in Philadelphia, but SmackDown was larger in the other markets. CM Punk’s segment did a 1.7 in 18-49 in the Chicago market, but the rating for the Punk segment was a 1.2.