WWE Smackdown And AEW Rampage Viewership Move In Different Directions
"WWE Friday Night SmackDown" may have encountered its lowest rating in over a month, but that does mean there is not a big silver lining. Wrestlenomics released the viewership information for Friday and the 7/15 episode of "SmackDown" accrued an average viewership of 2,077,000, the lowest total viewership the program has seen since June 10. However, this is only a 2% drop from the previous week.
Demographically "SmackDown" had 613,000 viewers on average in the 18-49 demo, totalling a 0.47 P18-49 rating. This is the exact same number from last week.
Despite the drop in total viewership, "SmackDown" ranked #1 overall in the key 18 – 49 demo.
If you look at the year-over-year viewership for "SmackDown," the numbers are significantly down. The 7/16/2021 episode of "SmackDown" saw an average audience of 2,310,000 viewers, which means this week's episode was down 11% from the year before. Demographic-wise, last year's "SmackDown" had 852,000 viewers on average in the 18-49 demo, 28% more than last Friday.
"AEW Rampage" was up 2% in total viewership from the Friday night prior as it garnered 435,000 viewers on average.
Looking at the key demographic, "Rampage" suffered a 7% drop from the week before in the 18-49 demo as it had about 183,000 average viewers tuning in, giving the show a 0.14 P18-49 rating.
"Rampage" came in at #11 in the 18-49 demo for cable originals, #25 in broadcast primetime.
Like "Rampage," "SmackDown" only had four matches on their card with the main event seeing Angleo Dawkins defeat Jimmy Uso in singles action. There was also a Championship Contender's Match to kick off the program as the "SmackDown" Women's Champion Liv Morgan defeated Natalya. The show opened with a segment involving Pat McAfee as he readies for Happy Corbin at SummerSlam.
"Rampage" opened the show with House Of Black being confronted by Sting following their tag victory against John Silver and Alex Reynolds. The show also had an ROH World Title defense by Jonathan Gresham as he defeated Lee Moriarty. This is one week after Gresham turned heel against Moriarty.