WWE SmackDown ratings up despite World Series competition

Friday night’s WWE SmackDown episode averaged 1.418 million viewers on USA Network, up 2.9 percent from the previous week. It’s still the second-lowest audience total the show has done since moving back to USA Network.

SmackDown drew a 0.43 rating in the 18-49 demo. That’s up 2.4 percent from last week but is also the second-lowest rating the show has drawn in that category since returning to USA in September.

The show went head-to-head with game one of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, which averaged more than 15 million viewers. It was the best audience for a World Series game one since 2017. This is the first time these two iconic franchises have met in the World Series since 1981.

As compared to the same week in 2023, a week where SmackDown was moved from Fox to FS1 due to World Series coverage, the show’s overall audience was up 23.8 percent while its 18-49 rating was up 22.9 percent. That’s a more fair comparison than the year-over-year numbers have been in recent weeks since FS1 and USA Network are in a similar number of households.

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. The first four weeks are from Fox airings while the last seven episodes were on USA Network. This week’s show was down 18.8 percent in overall viewers and down 14 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.