By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE Smackdown last Friday, January 13 scored a 2.18 rating, up 21 percent compared to a 1.80 rating the previous week to start 2012.

It was the highest rating since a 2.21 rating on December 9 and tied for the third-highest-rating for a Friday night airing on Syfy.

Smackdown averaged 3.13 million viewers, which was also up 21 percent compared to the previous week's average. It was the first Friday night airing to crack three million viewers since Dec. 9. Smackdown also topped the most-recent Tuesday night live Smackdown special, which averaged 3.05 million viewers on Nov. 29.

-- Smackdown's one-week resurgence was led by the males 18-49 demographic, which was up 44 percent compared to the previous week. It was the best m18-49 rating since November and third-highest ever for Smackdown on Syfy.

Smackdown also recaptured overall adults (males & females) 18-34 and 18-49. Smackdown was up two-tenths of a ratings point among a18-49 for the highest rating since Dec. 9.

-- On cable TV Friday night, Smackdown ranked #3 in overall viewers, #5 among males 18-34, and #3 among males 18-49. Smackdown's competition was nowhere near the level of the previous Friday, which included a college football bowl game and Disney Channel series finale.

"Gold Rush" on Discovery continues to be Smackdown's top cable TV competition - the show averaged 5.4 million viewers on Friday. Also, a Disney Channel movie averaged 4.2 million viewers, which is reflected in Smackdown's m12-17 rating only increasing five percent compared to the previous week. Smackdown did top the Friday night NBA game on ESPN, which averaged 2.7 million.

Caldwell's Analysis: There appeared to be some internal and external factors leading to the big surge. It probably leans more to the external factors, as Smackdown had unusually strong competition the previous week that pulled away older and younger viewers on both extremes. Related to WWE, Raw could be a factor for two reasons. One, last Monday's show seemed to do a better job leading into Smackdown compared to most weeks. Two, Raw took a big hit in viewership against the BCS Title game, so perhaps more people than usual checked out the Friday show as a "make-up" for missing Raw. There could also be some developing interest in the new World Title picture involving Daniel Bryan, Mark Henry, and Big Show. A big test will be this week's Smackdown.

What we'll begin to look at is whether there is a correlation between "social media activity" and TV ratings as we enter new territory with the Trendrr.TV charts. Smackdown's "social media activity score" was up 12 percent compared to the previous week, so there could be something there.

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