WWE SmackDown Sees Mild Ratings Dip While Preempted AEW Rampage Hits Record Low

The Nielsen ratings for Friday's TV shows were late due to the Presidents' Day holiday in the U.S., coming in on Tuesday as a result. The news is a mix of good and bad in the places where you'd expect it: "WWE SmackDown" on Fox, though down slightly from the previous week, was the top show on television for the day in the key demographic, while "AEW Rampage" on TNT posted its lowest numbers to date, albeit outside its usual time slot by three hours on the east coast and six hours in the west.

According to the Wrestlenomics Patreon page and ShowBuzz Daily, the "go-home" episode before Elimination Chamber averaged 2,383,000 viewers across all demographics across its two hours (down three percent from the previous week), with about 756,000 of them being adults aged 18 to 49, the demographic most valued by advertisers (down ten percent). The latter translated to a 0.58 rating in the P18-49 demo, which made it the number one show for the day, ahead of the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on ESPN, which posted a 0.54 rating.

As for "Rampage," it aired at 7 PM ET and 4 PM PT instead of the usual 10 PM ET/PT due to TNT's NBA All-Star Weekend coverage. It was the least-watched episode of the show in its history, averaging 287,000 viewers across all demos, about 87,000 of which were in the key P18-49 demo, for a 0.07 rating. Among cable originals, it ranked 59th for the day. In its past airings in this earlier time slot, "Rampage" had always topped 400,000 viewers and had never dipped below a 0.15 rating in the key demo.