SmackDown may have achieved its lowest ranking ever on Cagematch, but its performance on television told a different story.
Last Friday’s episode from St. Louis averaged 1,508,000 viewers and 585,000 viewers (0.43) in the 18-49 demographic, the show’s largest numbers since September 5, 2025, when AJ Lee returned, and John Cena wrestled on the show.
The overall audience grew by 15% over the previous week, while the key demographic increased by 30%.
In the 18-49 demo, males saw a massive growth from 283,000 viewers to 397,000 viewers this past week, with female viewers in the demo improving by nine percent.
Adults 18-34 went from 0.18 to 0.25, and adults 25-54 moved from 0.43 to 0.54.
SmackDown ranked fourth among cable originals on Friday behind coverage of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament on ESPN.
The show was promoted around the reveal of the “mystery caller” who turned out to be Pat McAfee. While the angle has been universally panned, the intrigue of the reveal clearly worked, leading SmackDown to its top performance over the past seven months.
Cagematch lists the show as the eighth-lowest rated wrestling event in history, with a 0.81 from 227 votes.
Data: Programming Insider & Wrestlenomics
