Vince McMahon retirement announcement boosts WWE SmackDown ratings

With the show airing just hours after Vince McMahon announced his retirement from WWE, Friday’s episode of SmackDown saw a ratings boost.

Friday’s SmackDown averaged 2.256 million viewers on Fox, up 8.6 percent from the previous week. It’s the best audience for the show since June 17, which was the day Vince McMahon appeared on SmackDown after announcing that he was stepping away as WWE chairman and CEO during the WWE Board of Directors’ misconduct investigation.

SmackDown drew a 0.62 rating in the 18-49 demo, which topped all of television on Friday and was nearly double any other program on the night. That’s also SmackDown’s best rating in the demo since June 17 and is the show’s second-highest rating of the year so far.

SmackDown also topped all of TV in the 18-34 demo with a 0.39 rating.

As compared to the same week in 2021, SmackDown was up 5.6 percent in overall viewers and up 12.7 percent in 18-49.

Listed below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership and 18-49 demo numbers for SmackDown, along with the 10-week averages in both categories. This week’s show was up 9.7 percent in viewers and up 29.2 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.