The go-home edition of Friday Night SmackDown before SummerSlam was the top program in prime time on Friday night.
The August 1 episode from Newark averaged 1,544,000 viewers and 617,000 viewers (0.46) in the 18-49 demographic on the USA Network.
The show fell ten percent in overall viewership and four percent in the 18-49 demo from the previous week, which featured the tribute to Hulk Hogan one day after his death.
In the 18-49 demographic, male viewership dropped by ten percent with an average of 404,000 viewers. If you exclude last week’s number, it was the largest male audience in that demo since April 25. Females in the core demo grew by fourteen percent to 214,000 viewers.
SmackDown ranked first among all television programs in prime-time on Friday and topping two replays of Happy’s Place (0.23 and 0.22), and the closest cable program was Gutfeld (0.13) on Fox News.
The show featured a face-to-face segment involving John Cena and Cody Rhodes before SummerSlam, and Talla Tonga facing Jimmy Uso in the main event.
Data: Programming Insider & Wrestlenomics
