Source: f4wonline.com
Friday night's SmackDown averaged 1,032,000 viewers on FS1, up 19.2 percent from the October 15 episode that also aired on the channel.
Friday's show aired on FS1 due to game three of the World Series being on Fox.
The number is even more impressive when considering the previous SmackDown on FS1 was loaded up with the company's top stars in Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, and Becky Lynch while this show had none of them. In addition, the sports competition was much stronger this time. The World Series game averaged more than 11 million viewers head-to-head.
This is the highest viewership that SmackDown has done on FS1 in its five different airings over the last two-plus years. It narrowly beat out the SmackDown episode from last December that did not have World Series competition and averaged 1,030,000 viewers.
SmackDown finished third on the cable charts with a 0.29 rating, up 20.8 percent from two weeks prior. It was the highest rated non-sports show on cable, topping AEW Rampage's 0.25 rating.
Here's a look at the viewership and 18-49 demo numbers for SmackDown's FS1 broadcasts to date. It should be noted that the October 15 show from this year included an additional 30 minutes, which brought down the show's average:
- October 25, 2019: 888,000 viewers, 0.27 rating in 18-49
- October 23, 2020: 881,000 viewers, 0.25 rating in 18-49
- December 18, 2020: 1,030,000 viewers, 0.30 rating in 18-49
- October 15. 2021: 866,000 viewers, 0.24 rating in 18-49
- October 29, 2021: 1,032,000 viewers, 0.29 rating in 18-49
