WWE SmackDown draws best viewership since September 2021

Friday night’s “WrestleMania SmackDown,” the go-home show for WrestleMania 38, averaged 2.359 million viewers on Fox, up 8.2 percent from the previous week. It’s the best audience for SmackDown so far in 2022 and is the show’s highest viewership number since September 10 of last year.

SmackDown topped all network programming with a 0.61 rating in the 18-49 demo, up 24.5 percent from the previous week. SmackDown did trail an NCAA women’s basketball tournament final four game on ESPN, but that was on cable. It’s SmackDown’s best demo rating since this January.

As compared to the same week in 2021, SmackDown was up 10.4 percent in viewers and up seven percent in the 18-49 demo. It’s the fourth time in the last five weeks that SmackDown has had a year-over-year increase in total viewers.

Over the last 10 weeks, SmackDown has averaged 2,195,500 viewers and a 0.56 rating in the 18-49 demo. This week’s show was up 7.4 percent in viewers and up 8.9 percent in the demo as compared to those 10-week averages.