By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Friday Night Smackdown finished with an average of 1.184 million viewers for USA Network, according to ProgrammingInsider.com. The number was down compared to the previous episode’s 1.279 million average viewership.
Powell’s POV: Friday’s Smackdown finished with a 0.23 rating in the 18-49 demographic, down from the previous week’s 0.29 rating. Despite the numbers being down compared to the previous week, Smackdown still finished as the top show in the Friday cable ratings. One year earlier, the May 16, 2025, Smackdown averaged 1.290 million viewers and a 0.36 rating for USA Network.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
The reason smack down is having a low viewership is because NBC removed themselves from a lot of their subscriber channels myself they took it away from me. I use Fubotv and I can’t watch SmackDown. I don’t know anything that’s going on with SmackDown. I can only watch raw, which is on Netflix. The only thing I could find out about SmackDown is through WrestleFeed app and through what happens on raw and from what I’m hearing through social media it’s all because of what NBC did and SmackDown is on USA and with them doing what they did the ratings are down for a lot of WWE fans who can’t get to watch SmackDown it’s all because NBC network.
Thanks for the info. We’ll see if it’s a trend. The Smackdown numbers seemed to be holding up pretty well despite the ongoing tinkering with the Nielsen’s formula.