WWE Smackdown Viewership & Ratings Report: 5/2/25

The stars of WWE's blue brand continued to march on towards the upcoming Backlash Premium Live Event on May 10 with the May 2 episode of "WWE SmackDown" in Des Moines, Iowa. Randy Orton promised to kick John Cena's head off his shoulders in their upcoming title match, Aleister Black made a successful in-ring return by defeating The Miz, and the show went off the air with Naomi holding the WWE Women's Championship above her head after viciously attacking Jade Cargill.

Despite all of this, it seems as if a WrestleMania hangover of some sort has seeped its way into the WWE viewership numbers, as The Programming Insider have confirmed that the May 2 episode of "SmackDown" averaged a total of 1,406,000 viewers. This is a 12% drop from the previous week's 1,599,000 viewers, and 13% below the trailing four week average of 1,617,000 viewers, giving the May 2 episode the lowest viewership number since March 28.

However, it was the 18-49 demographic that saw the most damage, as "SmackDown" posted a 0.37 number, the lowest of 2025 so far. Not only was it the lowest number since the November 15, 2024 episode, but it was also 27% lower than the previous week's 0.51 number, and 26% below the trailing four week average of 0.50. While this can attributed to the hype of WrestleMania 41 wearing off, the competition on Friday night also played a part in the weaker numbers as "SmackDown" went up against Game 6 of the NBA play-offs between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors, which aired on ESPN. The Rockets vs. Warriors game took first place for the night in both network and cable telecasts, with the pre-game show that aired immediately before taking second place, pushing "SmackDown" into the third for the night.