WWE Smackdown saw another benchmark in its time on Fox with the second hour of the telecast drawing just 1.978M viewers according to Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily. It was the lowest viewership for the program since airing on Fox this past October.
WWE Smackdown drew 2.050 million viewers in the first hour and then dropped off to 1.978 million in the second. It drew a 0.5 in the A18-49 demo and a 3 share in the M18-49 demo. It also had a 2 share in the over 50 demo.
Rounds 2-3 of the NFL Draft on ABC drew 3.784 million viewers in the 8-9pm time slot and another 3.104 in the 9-10pm time slot. The NFL Draft, airing remotely across the nation, drew a 0.8 rating in the A18-49 demo in the first two hours and a 5 share in the M18-49 demo.
CBS strong lineup of MacGyver, Magnum P.I. and Blue Bloods won the evening yet again but it is noteworthy that the younger demo went to the NFL Draft and not SmackDown.
Payout Perspective:
It’s not the fact that Smackdown didn’t win the ratings against NFL programming on Friday, it’s the way they lost. The viewership is hurdling downward from an average in the mid-2M to around 2M. The 1.9M in the second hour is the lowest ever in the program’s short-history on the network and the empty-arena programming is hurting viewership.
Leave a Reply