SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last Friday’s episode of WWE Smackdown featured the debut of the new and heavily-hyped Thunderdome set. It was also the final episode of WWE TV headed into Summerslam weekend. The show drew 2.198 million viewers, the highest viewership since Apr. 10.
The ten-week viewership average headed into last Friday was 1.971, so Smackdown viewership increased by 11.5 percent. That is likely due to curiosity over Thunderdome. It may or may not hold up, dependent on how many viewers have been staying away from Smackdown due to the change in setting to the fan-free Performance Center. Because Roman Reigns will return to Smackdown on Friday, it will be impossible to isolate the effect of Thunderdome in its second week compared to the interest in seeing Reigns again.
Smackdown drew a 0.58 rating among 18-49 year olds, good for a victory on Friday in the most closely tracked demographic, beating out all other broadcast network shows. It’s total viewership was well below reruns on CBS and “Shark Tank” on ABC, though.
The average viewership in the ten weeks leading up to the Apr. 10 episode, the last time Smackdown topped 2.2 million viewers, was 2.48 million. So this week’s episode at just under 2.2 million is still down over 10 percent from the pre-pandemic era of shows.
Last year, in the same stretch of time on USA Network, Smackdown averaged 2.140 million viewers and then averaged 2.020 million in the ten week stretch from June 18 through Aug. 21, a drop of 6 percent. So even accounting for season change in viewership during WrestleMania season versus the summer, this week’s viewership is still 4 percent lower than a projection would indicate, but that’s a substantial rebound. The return of Reigns could close that gap entirely and bring WWE back to what would have been forecast prior to the pandemic forcing WWE out of fan-filled arenas.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.