Friday's Christmas Eve episode of SmackDown averaged 1.972 million viewers on Fox, down 14.4 percent from the previous week. It's the lowest viewership for the show on Fox since WWE's return to live touring in July.
In the 18-49 demo, SmackDown drew a 0.48 rating, down 8.3 percent from the previous week's episode. That's also tied for the show's lowest rating on Fox since July.
Network television viewing was down across the board due to the holiday. SmackDown actually beat several shows in total viewership despite usually finishing last in that category. The show was second in 18-49 behind a Christmas movie on NBC ("It's A Wonderful Life") that drew a 0.61. SmackDown also finished tied for second in 18-34 with a 0.30 rating.
As compared to this week last year, when SmackDown aired on Christmas Day, the show was down 40.3 percent in overall viewers and down 50 percent in 18-49. That episode had the benefit of a huge NFL lead-in and did the best numbers for SmackDown since its premiere on Fox in October 2019.
Listed below are the overall viewership and 18-49 demo numbers for the last 11 weeks that SmackDown has aired on Fox. This week's episode was down 8.8 percent in overall viewers and down 12.7 percent in 18-49 from the recent averages.
