WWE SmackDown Ratings: Viewership Down Despite Draft Hype

This week's WWE SmackDown ratings and viewership figures saw the show fail to benefit from an onslaught of hype. Over the last week, several top tier matches were promoted for the show, plus the broadcast had the benefit of serving as night one of this year's WWE Draft. That was still not enough to see the SmackDown viewership tick-up significantly from last week, drawing an average of 2.087 million viewers on Friday night according to Showbuzz Daily. That number comes from a first hour that did 2.156 million viewers and a second hour that dropped off significantly when the NBA Finals game started, coming in at 2.017 million viewers.

Last week's broadcast, by comparison, averaged 2.155 million viewers. Both shows went up against stiff competition in facing the NBA Finals.

It should be noted that last week's initial viewership was slightly lower than this week's, with the overnight average coming in at 2.043 million. That number went up to 2.155 million when the final numbers came in on Monday, so we'd expect this week's show to have its viewership increase as well.

This week's edition of SmackDown ranked eighth for viewership among network competition on Friday night. The show was outdrawn by Jimmy Kimmel Live, NBA Countdown, NBA Finals, Greatest #AtHome Videos, Undercover Boss, Blue Bloods, and Dateline NBC.

In the coveted 18-49 age group ratings demographic, SmackDown did a 0.60 demo rating. If it holds up, this will be the same as last week's show, which also drew a 0.60 in the key demo. This was good for fourth place on the night among network competition, trailing NBA Finals coverage (Jimmy Kimmel Live, NBA Countdown, and the game itself).

In the 18-34 demo rating, SmackDown did a 0.30 in the overnights. This was also the same demo rating as last week's broadcast. This was also good for fourth place on the night among network competition, trailing the same NBA Finals coverage.

In addition to the WWE Draft, the show featured a title match between Bayley and Sasha Banks, as well as Kevin Owens taking on "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt.