Friday Night SmackDown and AEW Rampage finished third and fourth respectively on cable this past Friday while airing against the World Series.
While this past Friday’s shows did not have the same level of urgency as the two presented two weeks prior with a 30-minute head-to-head battle on October 22nd, this week’s shows saw both perform better than they did on that date.
While WWE did not counter Rampage with live programming head-to-head FS1 did air two replays of SmackDown immediately after to go against the taped edition of Rampage from 10-11 p.m. ET.
In its return to FS1, SmackDown averaged 1,032,000 viewers and 373,000 (0.29) in the 18-49 demographic, which is virtually identical to its best performance ever on FS1 from last December (1,030,000 and 0.30). (Credit: Showbuzz Daily and Brandon Thurston from Wrestlenomics).
These figures were up from the October 22nd episode on FS1 that averaged 866,000 and 314,000 (0.24) in 18-49 over two-and-a-half hours with the final thirty minutes airing commercial-free against a live edition of Rampage.
AEW Rampage finished fourth this past Friday with 623,000 viewers and 320,000 (0.25) in 18-49, which is up from 533,000 and 288,000 the week prior.
In the demos monitored by Showbuzz Daily, SmackDown airing from 8-10 p.m. ET on FS1 was higher in 18-49, Females 18-49, Males 18-49 (0.35 to 0.34), Females 12-34, Adults 25-54, and Adults 50+.
AEW was higher in Adults 18-34 and Males 12-34.
For Rampage, it was their best 18-49 figure since AEW Grand Slam on September 24th, which was a two-hour special from Arthur Ashe Stadium.
In Canada, SmackDown averaged 129,100 viewers and 55,900 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. Last week, the show averaged 133,600 and 38,700 respectively.
SmackDown returns to Fox this Friday while Rampage will have a live show from St. Louis, Missouri.
