WWE SmackDown Rises in Ratings & Viewership for Returns of AJ Lee & Brock Lesnar, Tops Ratings for the Night

Wrestlenomics has the ratings and viewership numbers for last week’s Chicago edition of WWE SmackDown. Last week’s show featured the fallout from WWE Clash in Paris, including an appearance by Brock Lesnar, furthuring his feud with John Cena, plus the long-awaited WWE return of AJ Lee, who was back after a ten-year hiatus.

WWE SmackDown saw a 38% increase in viewership from last week’s show. Friday Night SmackDown averaged 1.585 million viewers compared to 1.147 million viewers for the Clash in Paris go-home episode.

In the P18-48 key demo, SmackDown drew a 0.51 rating, increasing 82% from last week’s rating of 0.28 in the same key demo. WWE SmackDown finished at No. 1 in the ratings for the night for both cable and broadcast programming the P18-49 key ratings demo.

Last week’s WWE SmackDown also featured the final Friday Night SmackDown appearance of John Cena, who is in the midst of his farewell tour. Cena competed in Sami Zayn Open Challenge for the WWE US Title. It ended in a no contest after Brock Lesnar interfered, setting up his match with Cena at Wrestlepalooza later this month.