Friday's episode of WWE Smackdown averaged 2.569 million viewers on Fox, up 22.7 percent from the previous week. It's SmackDown's third-largest audience total of 2023 so far.
SmackDown topped all of network television with a 0.70 rating in the 18-49 demo. That more than tripled the closest competition. It's the fourth-highest rating that SmackDown has done in the 18-49 demo so far this year.
The episode featured surprise appearances by The Rock and Pat McAfee. John Cena was also on the show, which had been announced in advance.
According to
Wrestlenomics, the opening quarter with The Rock, McAfee, and Austin Theory averaged over 2.8 million viewers. It then dropped to around 2.5 million for the rest of the show.
As compared to the same week in 2022, SmackDown was up 16.1 percent in overall viewers and up 40 percent in 18-49.
Listed below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership and 18-49 demo ratings for SmackDown, as well as the 10-week averages in both categories. This week's show was up 10.1 percent in overall viewers and up 9.4 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.
