SmackDown experiences a big increase with return of live fans

The return of Friday Night SmackDown in front of a live audience resulted in the show’s best performance of the past six months on Fox.

Photo Courtesy: WWE

The return of Friday Night SmackDown in front of a live audience resulted in the show’s best performance of the past six months on Fox.

Friday’s go-home edition of SmackDown from the Toyota Center in Houston averaged 2,310,000 viewers and 0.66 (852,000) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.

The show was up 16.3 percent in viewers and increased over 36 percent in the key demographic.

The figures represent SmackDown’s best viewership mark since the January 23, 2021, edition of the show, which was an episode built around the tease of a match involving Adam Pearce and Paul Heyman throughout the program.

This past week’s show was also SmackDown’s best performance in the 18-49 demo since January 15.

In Canada, the show averaged 176,500 viewers and 86,900 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360 going against a Toronto Blue Jays vs. Texas Rangers baseball game. It was SmackDown’s highest audience in Canada since June 11th and up 31.7 percent in viewership from the week prior.

About John Pollock 5484 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.