WWE SmackDown Ratings: Show Draws Second Largest Audience Of The Year

WWE's Friday night edition of SmackDown on FOX looks like it will prove to be one of the most watched shows of the last several months for the company. With most sports leagues having suspended operations during the coronavirus pandemic, WWE had the situation of being one of the only organizations putting out new content as sports networks around the world aired reruns of past games and matches.

With a curiosity factor of how WWE would pull off a live show with no audience at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Showbuzz Daily reports that SmackDown drew an overnight average viewership figure of 2.588 million viewers. This comes from hour one drawing 2.673 million viewers and hour two drawing 2.503 million viewers.

In terms of pure viewership, SmackDown was number eight for the night on network television. The show trailed Shark Tank, 20/20, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-O, Blue Bloods, Lincoln Rhyme, and Dateline.

If these numbers hold when the final viewership figures come in on Monday, it would make this week's SmackDown the second-most watched edition of the show this year, only trailing the February 28th episode two weeks ago coming off of Super ShowDown with new Universal Champion Bill Goldberg.

In the coveted 18-49 age group ratings demographic, SmackDown drew a 0.70 rating, the same as last week. This was number two for the night on network television behind Shark Tank. SmackDown tied with several programs for number two, including 20/20, Hawaii Five-O, and Blue Bloods.

Among 18-34 year olds, SmackDown drew a 0.50 rating. This made the show number one for the night on network television in that demo. This was up from last week's SmackDown that drew a 0.40 rating, tying with several programs for first place.

SmackDown featured the return of John Cena to the show, with a face to face segment between he and Bray Wyatt in the main event slot. It also featured a singles match between Daniel Bryan and Cesaro, a tag team match pitting Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss against Sasha Banks and Bayley, a sit down interview with Roman Reigns, and the re-airing of the Elimination Chamber SmackDown Tag Team Championship match.

What did you think of this week's edition of SmackDown? Let us know in the comments section below, and give me a follow on Twitter @ryandroste for all things AEW and WWE.