WWE SmackDown ratings rebound, ranks first on TV for the night

Friday night’s WWE SmackDown episode averaged 1.578 million viewers on the USA Network, up 27.9 percent from last week’s show that went against the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson boxing special on Netflix. It’s the highest audience total SmackDown has done since October 11 and the third-highest number the show has drawn since returning to USA Network in September.

SmackDown topped all of television with a 0.46 rating in the 18-49 demo. That’s up 43.8 percent from last week and is the second-highest rating the show has done in that category since the October 11 episode.

The show went head-to-head with an NBA game on ESPN that finished third on TV with a 0.36 rating in the 18-49 demo and a college football game on Fox that did a 0.34 to finish fifth.

As compared to the same week in 2023, when the show was moved to FS1 due to Fox airing college football, SmackDown’s overall viewership was up 100 percent while the 18-49 rating was up 91.7 percent.

Listed below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership totals and 18-49 demo ratings for SmackDown, along with the 10-week average in both categories. This week’s show was up 5.6 percent in overall viewers and up 2.2 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.