WWE SmackDown demo rating up despite World Series competition
Friday night’s WWE SmackDown episode averaged 1.147 million viewers on USA Network, a drop of three percent from the previous week. Despite that, this is the second-largest audience total the show has done under Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel measurement system.
SmackDown topped the cable charts, and finished third overall on television, with a 0.29 rating in the 18-49 demo. That’s up 3.6 percent from last week and is the best rating the show has done in that category since September 26, which was under the previous system.
The show went head-to-head with game one of MLB’s World Series, which drew the second-highest ratings of the last seven years for a World Series opening game. Fox averaged 12.5 million viewers for the broadcast and did a 2.53 rating in 18-49 airing head-to-head with Smackdown. The baseball pre-game show finished second on the charts with 7.244 million viewers and a 1.30 rating.
As compared to the same week in 2024, under the old ratings measurement system, SmackDown’s overall viewership was down 19.1 percent while the 18-49 rating was down 32.6 percent.
Listed below are the last 11 weeks of viewership numbers and 18-49 demo ratings, as well as the 10-week average in both categories. This week’s show was down 8.6 percent in viewers and 12.1 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.
Note: numbers before October 1 are using the previous method of calculating ratings.
