This past Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown saw a jump in the ratings, thanks in large part to the announcement of a Hell In a Cell match on the show.
Roman Reigns vs Rey Mysterio for the Universal Championship was originally slated for the PPV itself, however WWE changed plans and opted to give the match away ‘for free’ on FOX Friday night.
It was arguably a very good move in terms of ratings, as SmackDown drew over 2 million viewers for the first time in over a month. The Throwback episode of SmackDown on May 7 drew 2.282 million viewers, and since then nothing has come close, except for this Hell In a Cell headlined show with 2.045 million.
Unfortunately for WWE, they can’t give away these sort of massive bouts exponentially, so they will need to figure something out to try and keep the Friday night ratings above that 2 million line.
WWE SmackDown Ratings
Here’s the last few weeks of Ratings for WWE SmackDown:
- 7th May Episode -Â 2.282 million viewers. 0.65 rating in the 18-49 demographic: this was the SmackDown Throwback episode
- 14th May Episode –Â 1.917 million viewers. 0.44 rating in the 18-49 demographic
- 21st May Episode – 1.933 million viewers. 0.50 rating in the 18-49 demographic: this was the post-WrestleMania Backlash episode
- 28th May Episode -Â 1.928 million viewers. 0.50 rating in the 18-49 demographic
- 4th June Episode -Â 1.883 million viewers. 0.50 rating in the 18-49 demographic
- 11th June Episode – 1.944 million viewers. 0.48 rating in the 18-49 demographic
- 19th June Episode – 2.045 million viewers. 0.54 rating in the 18-49 demographic
