WWE SmackDown viewership steady, demo rating down against NCAA tournament

Friday’s episode of SmackDown averaged 2,180,000 viewers on Fox, up 1.5 percent from the previous week. It was essentially an average total audience for the show.

In the 18-49 demo, SmackDown drew a 0.49 rating, down 15.5 percent from the previous week’s episode. It’s SmackDown’s lowest number of the year so far in that category.

SmackDown had monstrous competition in the form of the Sweet 16 of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. The game that aired on CBS head-to-head with SmackDown averaged 10.2 million viewers and drew a 2.26 rating in 18-49. The TBS game opposite SmackDown averaged 2.6 million viewers and drew a 0.71 rating.

SmackDown did have the highest ratings in both the 18-34 and 18-49 demos for non-basketball related content on television. SmackDown did a 0.37 rating in 18-34.

As compared to the same week in 2021, SmackDown was down 0.5 percent in viewership and down 14 percent in 18-49. The NCAA tournament is way up in audience this year, which likely explains that.

Listed below are the last 11 weeks of viewership and 18-49 demo numbers for SmackDown, along with the 10-week averages for both categories. This week’s show was down 0.7 percent in viewers and down 14 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.