WWE Smackdown Rating Jumps In USA Network Return, Viewership Down

WWE Smackdown had its return to USA Network last week, and the rating jumped a lot while the audience was down a bit. Friday’s episode garnered a 0.55 rating in the 18 – 49 demographic and 1.723 million viewers per Wrestlenomics. Those numbers were up 22.21% and down 2.7% respectively from the previous week’s 0.45 demo rating and audience of 1.77 million.

Comparisons with previous are largely moot because Smackdown is on a new network and on basic cable as opposed to a broadcast network, which means less available households and some demographic differences. With that caveat said, the show did the highest demo rating since the August 23rd episode had a 0.56 and a lower audience than any original episode during the Fox run.

Smackdown is averaging a 0.635 demo rating and 2.262 million viewers in 2024 to date, compared to a 0.607 demo rating and 2.303 million for the same point in 2023.