Last week’s post-Money In the Bank edition of WWE SmackDown drew an average of 2.137 million viewers on FOX.
This final number is up from the overnight viewership that was released on Saturday morning, which was an average of 2.04 million viewers. This number is down 7.49% from last week’s final SmackDown viewership of 2.310 million viewers for the return to the road episode.
Friday’s SmackDown drew a 0.55 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. This is down 16.67% from last week’s 0.66 rating. That 0.55 rating represents 709,000 viewers in the 18-49 key demographic, which is down 16.78% from the 852,000 18-49 viewers from last week.
SmackDown went up against the Olympics opening ceremony on NBC, which averaged around 17 million viewers from 7pm until 11pm ET. Friday’s show was up 9% compared to the final 4 weeks of the ThunderDome SmackDown episodes. This past Friday’s viewership was down 7.49% from the week before, while the 18-49 key demo rating was down 16.67% from the week before.
Viewership for Friday’s SmackDown episode was up 11.07% from the same week in 2020, while Friday’s 18-49 key demo rating was up 10% from the same week in 2020, which was the post-Extreme Rules episode.
Friday’s SmackDown took place from two locations – the Rolling Loud rap festival in Miami, and the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. The show featured several happenings ahead of time – the blue brand return of John Cena, Carmella vs. SmackDown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair, Toni Storm’s debut, and fallout from Money In the Bank.
