WWE SmackDown ratings fall against Olympics Opening Ceremony

Friday night’s WWE SmackDown averaged 2.058 million viewers on Fox, down 11 percent from the previous week. It’s the lowest audience total for the show since June 14 and is SmackDown’s second-lowest viewership of the year to date.

In the 18-49 demo, SmackDown drew a 0.52 rating. That’s down 20 percent from last week and ties the lowest rating the show has done on Fox since November 2022.

The show went head-to-head with NBC’s airing of the Olympic Opening Ceremony. The ceremony aired on tape delay after having been broadcast earlier in the day live. The combined audience of the two airings was the largest for an Opening Ceremony since the 2012 Olympics in London.

As compared to the same week in 2023, SmackDown’s overall audience was down 11.4 percent while its 18-49 rating was down 14.8 percent.

Listed below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership totals and 18-49 demo ratings for SmackDown, as well as the 10-week average in both categories. This week’s show was down 7.8 percent in overall viewers and down 17.5 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.