WWE SmackDown draws best viewership in three months
Friday night’s WWE SmackDown episode averaged 1.24 million viewers on USA Network, up 16.7 percent from the previous week. It’s the best audience for the show since September 19, which was before Nielsen switched over to its new Big Data + Panel ratings system.
The show took place on the eve of John Cena’s retirement match but did not include an appearance by Cena himself. It drew a 0.26 rating in the 18-49 demo. That’s up 8.3 percent from the prior week but ties the second-lowest rating SmackDown has done in that category since October 31.
SmackDown topped all of television in the key demo on Friday night. The most significant sports competition was women’s college basketball on ESPN2 with two games that each partially ran head-to-head with SmackDown. Those games ranked second and fourth on the cable charts for the night.
As compared to the same week in 2024 (which used Nielsen’s old panel-only reporting system), SmackDown’s overall viewership was down 19 percent while the 18-49 rating was down 44.7 percent.
Listed below are the last 11 weeks of viewership numbers and 18-49 demo ratings for SmackDown, as well as the 10-week average in both categories. This week’s show was up 12.4 percent in viewers but was steady in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.
WWE SmackDown ratings —
| Date | 18-49 | Total viewers |
| 10/3/2025 | 0.23 | 1,030,000 |
| 10/10/2025 | 0.22 | 1,025,000 |
| 10/17/2025 | 0.28 | 1,182,000 |
| 10/24/2025 | 0.29 | 1,147,000 |
| 10/31/2025 | 0.20 | 933,000 |
| 11/7/2025 | 0.26 | 1,141,000 |
| 11/14/2025 | 0.27 | 1,158,000 |
| 11/21/2025 | 0.29 | 1,210,000 |
| 11/28/2025 | 0.28 | 1,142,000 |
| 12/5/2025 | 0.24 | 1,063,000 |
| 12/12/2025 | 0.26 | 1,240,000 |
| 10-week average | 0.26 | 1,103,100 |
