The combination of AJ Lee’s return to WWE programming and John Cena’s final appearance on SmackDown led to the program ranking first on Friday.
The September 5 episode of SmackDown averaged 1,585,000 viewers and 684,000 viewers (0.51) in the 18-49 demographic on the USA Network.
The viewership grew by 38% from last week and was the show’s highest mark since July 25 for the episode honoring Hulk Hogan the day after his passing.
The 18-49 demographic saw its highest audience since April 25 and a gigantic increase of 82% from last week’s 0.28.
One of the big factors for the increase was women in the core demo, which averaged 274,000 viewers, which more than doubled last week’s figure of 127,000, and the largest female audience in the demo since March 14.
Males 18-49 averaged 411,000 viewers and was an increase of 65% from last week and the largest since the Hogan tribute show in July.
SmackDown won the night on television with the closest competitor being the U.S. Open Tennis coverage on ESPN, which averaged a 0.28 in the 18-49 demo. WWE also topped all network programming on Friday night.
More impressive is that SmackDown aired against the San Diego Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs game, which streamed on YouTube. The game averaged 17.3 million viewers worldwide and 16.2 million in the U.S.
Data: Programming Insider, Wrestlenomics & Sportico
