Friday Night SmackDown experienced a minor drop from last week’s go-home edition prior to WrestleMania 38.
The April 9th edition of the show averaged 2,230,000 viewers and approximately 788,000 (0.60) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics Radio and Showbuzz Daily.
WWE Smackdown last week Friday on Fox, 8-10pm:
2,230,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.60 (788,000)AEW Rampage on TNT, 10-11pm:
600,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.25 (328,000)Rampage's highest P18-49 since Oct 1, highest total since Jan 28.
More demos & analysis: https://t.co/1SscdBCpr8 pic.twitter.com/G9e2MZfX0u
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) April 11, 2022
SmackDown finished first among all network programming ahead of ABC’s Shark Tank (0.49) and CBS’ Blue Bloods (0.41).
SmackDown fell 5.5 percent in overall viewers and was down one percent in the 18-49 demo from last week’s “WrestleMania SmackDown” episode.
It was SmackDown’s fourth-highest viewership of 2022 and third-highest 18-48 figure.
According to Thurston’s data, males 18-49 grew by seven percent from last week while women in the demo dropped by 11 percent.
The show was promoted around Roman Reigns announcing his “next step” following his win over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania and included Ronda Rousey appearing on the show after her loss to Charlotte Flair.
In Canada, the show fell to approximately 150,000 viewers on Sportsnet 360, which was down from 247,200 the prior week. The reason is that it was a loaded day for sports in the county with the Toronto Blue Jays’ home opener dominating the sports chart with over 1.3 million viewers and included coverage of the Masters, Curling, and the Toronto Raptors vs. Houston Rockets. Due to the heavy competition, it was a rare week where SmackDown did not finish among the top ten sports programs on Friday.
