Friday Night SmackDown ranked ninth on television and seventh among cable programs airing against the Major League Baseball playoffs.
The October 17 episode from San Jose averaged 1,180,000 viewers and 381,000 viewers (0.28) in the 18-49 demographic on the USA Network.
The viewership grew by 15% over the previous week’s episode, which was the tape-delayed episode from Perth, Western Australia.
In the core demographic, the audience grew by 27% this week with a similar increase among both male and female viewers.
It was SmackDown’s best viewership figures since September 26, which was the first week of the new Big Data + Panel method being utilized.
The show aired against both the ALCS and NLCS games. The Toronto Blue Jays vs. Seattle Mariners game averaged 3,948,000 viewers and 0.76 in the 18-49 demographic on FS1, and the L.A. Dodgers vs. Milwaukee Brewers attracted an audience of 3,510,000 viewers and 0.71 in the demo on TBS.
There were also college football games airing on Fox and ESPN. The Miami Hurricanes and Louisville Cardinals game averaged 3,410,000 viewers and 0.83 in the demo on ESPN and won the night in the demo. The game on Fox averaged 2,661,000 viewers and 0.49 in the demo.
SmackDown featured an impromptu main event between Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre, and the return of Ilja Dragunov from injury to win the U.S. Championship.
Data: Programming Insider & Wrestlenomics
