WWE SmackDown draws strong ratings for John Cena’s return

Friday’s episode of WWE Smackdown averaged 2.443 million viewers on Fox. While that is down 7.7 percent from the previous week’s Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk tribute show, it’s SmackDown second-highest audience total since July 7.

SmackDown topped all of television in total viewers, which is very rare for a wrestling show. The episode was SmackDown’s go-home show for Payback and also featured John Cena’s return to WWE television.

SmackDown also topped all of TV with a 0.65 rating in the 18-49 demo. That more than tripled anything else on English-language network TV. It also beat two college football games that aired head-to-head on FS1 and ESPN in both total viewers and the 18-49 demo.

The rating is down 16.7 percent from last week but is SmackDown’s second-best number since the July 7 show.

As compared to the same week in 2022, Smackdown was up 17.6 percent in total viewers and up 32.7 percent in 18-49.

Listed below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership and 18-49 demo ratings for SmackDown, as well as the 10-week averages in both categories. This week’s show was up 3.6 percent in total viewers but even in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.