By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Friday Night Smackdown delivered 2.043 million viewers for Fox, according to the overnight numbers listed by Showbuzzdaily.com. The viewership count was down from the 2.110 final number from last week (last week’s overnight number was 2.032 million viewers). Friday’s first hour delivered 2.105 million viewers, and the second hour produced 1.980 million viewers.
Powell’s POV: Friday’s Smackdown did not win any demographics due to the NBA Finals airing on ABC and drawing 4.46 million viewers. Considering the game and the cable news networks presumably doing big numbers due to the U.S. President testing positive for COVID-19, Smackdown held up fairly well. The final numbers will be available on Monday.
WWE would be suffering big time if the 3 major sports wasn’t so heavily political. NBA and NFL ratings are down considerably.
NFL ratings on Thursday are down, on Sunday are down early but up late, and are way up on Monday.
Meanwhile, the NBA seems to be struggling but it’s also the sport that feels like they’ve done the worst job with a virtual audience and playing in a bubble.
That could be partially true with the Nba. However, I’m more incline to believe that the league’s over preaching is a bigger problem.