Friday Night Smackdown’s return to Fox on Christmas night drew its biggest number since the 2019 premiere on the network. It drew 4.097M viewers in the first hour and 2.574M in the second hour for a two-hour broadcast average of 3.34M in fast nationals.
After last week’s airing on FS1, the Christmas night edition was a pre-taped show but made no matter for the ratings. Notably, on a night with the NBA on ABC, the regular CBS Friday night schedule and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” on NBC, the first hour of WWE Friday Night Smackdown drew over 4 million viewers.
The NBA on ABC featured the Mavericks and Lakers which topped out at 3.959M viewers in the first hour opposite Smackdown. So, the WWE product actually outdrew live NBA.
Perhaps Smackdown was aided by the NFL on Fox game of Saints-Vikings.
The A18-49 drew 1.1 and a 9 share in M18-49 in the first hour. Notably, the NBA was slightly better than the WWE here.
Payout Perspective:
A very good showing for what many had expected to be a mediocre rating night due to it being a holiday and a taped show. Yet, it was the highest-rated show on the network for at least the first hour. The NBA may have suffered from fatigue after the first 3 games with the Mavs-Lakers being the de facto ‘premiere’ game of the day. One would think that the strong ratings from an NFL game may have helped the WWE. Evidence of this is the drop-off in ratings after hour 1.
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