WWE SmackDown ratings up despite NCAA competition
Friday night’s episode of WWE SmackDown averaged 1.439 million viewers on the USA Network, up 1.4% from the previous week. It’s the highest audience for the show since February 6th and the second highest since September 5th of last year.
SmackDown averaged a 0.32 rating in the 18-49 demo. That’s the same rating the show did last week and ties the second best rating the show has done in that category since the February 6th episode.
The show went head to head with coverage of the NCAA Tournament in college basketball on CBS, TNT, TBS and Tru TV which dominated the cable charts. It was the highest rated show on TV not related to basketball.
As compared to the same week in 2025, against similar competition, the overall viewership was down 1.4% while the 18-49 rating was down 18%.
Listed below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership and 18-49 demo ratings for WWE SmackDown as well as the 10 week average in both categories. This week’s show was up 22.3% in overall viewers and 14.3% in 18-49 as compared to recent averages.
| Date | 18-49 | Total viewers |
| 1/9/2026 | 0.26 | 990,000 |
| 1/16/2026 | 0.21 | 968,000 |
| 1/23/2026 | 0.22 | 943,000 |
| 1/30/2026 | 0.29 | 1,260,000 |
| 2/6/2026 | 0.35 | 1,459,000 |
| 2/13/2026 | 0.26 | 1,042,000 |
| 2/20/2026 | 0.29 | 1,113,000 |
| 2/27/2026 | 0.34 | 1,379,000 |
| 3/6/2026 | 0.27 | 1,190,000 |
| 3/13/2026 | 0.32 | 1,419,000 |
| 3/20/2026 | 0.32 | 1,439,000 |
| 10 week average | 0.28 | 1,176,300 |
