WWE SmackDown Draws Largest Audience Since FOX Debut

Christmas night was a fruitful one for WWE, as this week's SmackDown ratings are in and show a [...]

By Ryan Droste

Christmas night was a fruitful one for WWE, as this week's SmackDown ratings are in and show a massive increase in viewers for the Friday night show. According to the overnights posted to Showbuzz Daily, SmackDown averaged 3.336 million viewers. The number comes from a first hour that drew 4.097 million viewers and a second hour that garnered 2.574 million viewers.

The massive drop in viewership from hour one to hour two can be attributed to the great lead-in that SmackDown received, an NFL game featuring the Minnesota Vikings vs. the New Orleans Saints. Judging by SmackDown's hour one viewership, millions of viewers stayed tuned to FOX after the game, at least for a little bit. Even so, the show's second hour of 2.574 million is above what the broadcast has been doing of late.

This is SmackDown's best viewership since the show's premiere on FOX back in October 2019. In terms of pure viewership, it ranked third on network television on Friday night, being defeated by the NBA game on ABC between the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks, as well as Blue Bloods on CBS.

Among 18-49 year olds, SmackDown drew a 0.95 target demo rating. This, also, is far above what the show has been drawing in recent months. The show started off with a 1.1 rating in the demo for hour one, then dropped to 0.80 for hour two. This was second place on the night across network television among 18-49 year olds, being topped only by the NBA game on ABC.

SmackDown received a lot of praise from fans and critics alike on Friday. The show featured a tremendous cage match between Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens that opened the show, a very good Daniel Bryan vs. Jey Uso match, as well as Big E defeating Sami Zayn for the WWE Intercontinental Championship in the main event slot.

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