By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Friday Night Smackdown delivered 1.915 million viewers for Fox, according to the overnight numbers listed by Showbuzzdaily.com. The viewership count was down from the 3.303 million viewers drawn by last week’s show (the overnight number last week was 3.336 million viewers). Friday’s first hour delivered 1.996 million viewers, and the second hour produced 1.834 million viewers.
Powell’s POV: Football giveth and football taketh away. Last week’s Smackdown benefitted greatly from having an NFL game as a lead-in, while this week’s show was hurt by running opposite a college football playoff game that aired on ESPN. The January 11 edition of Raw will air opposite the college football championship game. Smackdown finished first in adults 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54 demographics, and first in the men 18-49 demo amongst the broadcast networks. The final numbers will be out sometime next week following a delay due to the holiday.
The highest rated pro wrestling show of the week. wwe was the top network show in the precious “demos”. The number was down from last week due to the new years holiday and the BIG college playoff game on espn, which likely did monster viewership numbers in the stupid “demos” which wrestling writers obsess over each and every week since stupid aew came into existence.