Friday's episode of SmackDown (the go-home show for Backlash)
averaged 2.059 million viewers on Fox, down 16.7 percent from the previous week's WWE Draft episode. It's the lowest viewership for a Fox airing of the show since August 26 of last year.
SmackDown topped all of network television with a 0.52 rating in the 18-49 demo. That's down 24.2 percent from last week and ties the lowest rating for the show on Fox since November 4. SmackDown also topped all the broadcast networks with a 0.32 rating in the 18-34 demo.
The show went head-to-head with an NBA playoff game on ESPN that ranked first overall on cable with a 1.65 rating in 18-49 and over five million viewers overall.
As compared to the same week in 2022, SmackDown was up 3.1 percent in overall viewers and up 13 percent in 18-49. The show also went against an NBA game last year that did similar numbers (4.4 million/1.59 rating in 18-49).
Listed below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership and 18-49 demo ratings for SmackDown, along with the 10-week averages in both categories. This week's show was down 12 percent in overall viewers and down 16.1 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.
