WWE Smackdown Rating & Audience Bounce Back For Last Week’s USA Network Return

WWE Smackdown was back on USA Network last week, and the show jumped back to its previous ratings level as a result. Friday’s episode brought in a 0.34 rating in the 18 – 49 demographic and 1.379 million viewers per Wrestlenomics. Those numbers are up 17.2% and 23.9% respectively from the previous week’s 0.29 demo rating and audience of 1.113 million.

The numbers put Smackdown back in the range of the most recent USA Network episode on February 6th, when the show did a 0.35 demo rating and 1.459 million viewers. The episode was also the go-home episode for Elimination Chamber. The Big 10 game on FOX won the night with a 0.44 demo rating and 2.161 million viewers, followed by ESPN’s NBA game which drew a 0.40 and 1.539 million.

As a reminder, Nielsen made an adjustment to its Big Data + Panel numbers in late January, and even the original Big Data + Panel ratings makes ratings difficult to compare to pre-change weeks. That said, WWE Smackdown is currently averaging a 0.278 demo rating and 1.148 viewers in 2026 compared to a 0.462 and 1.533 million for the same time period in 2025.