Friday Night SmackDown finished first in the 18-49 demographic despite dropping to a six-week low in the category.
The August 15 episode from Boston averaged 1,430,000 viewers and 469,000 viewers (0.35) in the 18-49 demographic on the USA Network.
The audience decrease was eight percent to its lowest average since July 11, while the 18-49 audience declined by 27 percent from last week and was its lowest mark since July 4.
SmackDown still ranked first for the night among all programming in the key demographic, ahead of the NFL preseason game between the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons (0.29), Fox News’ coverage of the Trump-Putin Summit, and the Little League World Series on ESPN among its cable competition. The four major networks aired a one-hour ‘Stand Up For Cancer’ special from 8-9 p.m. ET and combined for 4.2 million viewers across NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox.
It was the younger audience for SmackDown that was hurt, as males 18-49 dropped by thirty percent and females in the demo fell by seventeen percent.
It was a show lacking the main stars of the program, with Cody Rhodes, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Logan Paul missing the program. It was headlined by an impromptu tag match with Sami Zayn teaming with Jacob Fatu & Jimmy Uso against Solo Sikoa, JC Mateo & Tonga Loa.
Data: Programming Insider & Wrestlenomics
