– Final ratings for this past Friday’s SmackDown are in and the show averaged 2.315 million viewers on Fox, up from the overnight number of 2.209 million viewers
That’s up 1.3 percent from the previous week’s viewership. It’s the second highest number SmackDown has done since April 10, which was the post-WrestleMania edition of the show, traditionally one of the highest rated SmackDowns of the year.
In total viewers, SmackDown narrowly beat out ABC’s Shark Tank and an NBC election special to finish sixth on the major networks out of eight original programs. Cable news was way up with CNN averaging over six million viewers all day and MSNBC and Fox News averaging around four million viewers, which was far more than anything on the networks.
In the 18-49 demo, SmackDown averaged the same 0.7 rating it did last week, which is the highest the show has done since March. In 18-34, SmackDown matched last week with a 0.4 rating. also the best number since March.
SmackDown finished first among the networks in those two demos. Nothing else was even over a 0.5 in 18-49.
Looking at year-over-year numbers, SmackDown was down 11.3 percent in total viewers, 22.2 percent in 18-49, and 33.3 percent in 18-34.
– AEW’s Countdown to Full Gear special, which aired Friday night on TNT at 11 p.m. Eastern time, averaged 245,000 viewers. That’s down from the 357,000 viewers that AEW’s Countdown to All Out special drew in September, but that special aired on Saturday afternoon shortly before the start of the All Out pre-show.
The rating in the 18-49 demo for the Countdown to Full Gear special was a 0.09. Countdown to All Out drew a 0.14 in that demo.