By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Friday Night Smackdown finished with 1.234 million viewers for USA Network, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.com. The number was down compared to the previous episode’s 1.536 million viewership count.
Powell’s POV: Friday’s Smackdown finished with a 0.32 rating in the 18-49 demographic, down compared to the previous week’s 0.47 rating. Smackdown took a big hit and I suspect it’s largely due to the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing match that streamed on Netflix. One year earlier, the November 17, 2023 edition of Smackdown on Fox produced 2.206 million viewers and a 0.62 rating while running against AEW Collision.
Yes and no. I mean the fight didn’t even start until an hour and a half after smackdown ended. I wonder what the numbers would have been if the fight had occurred during the actual show
The event started streaming at the same time as Smackdown. Based on all the questions I got from friends and family, a lot of people had no idea there was an undercard.
And the undercard was the only thing you could actually watch. For me anyway. I wasn’t able to watch the fight until about 30 min after the fight ended because of the buffering. Bad sign for Raw
It was a shit show. We got a round or two into the great women’s fight and it all went to hell. It didn’t work properly again for us until they stopped live streaming. I stayed up very late and watched because I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid spoilers. My gal wisely went to bed and watched it in the morning before I even woke up.