WWE SmackDown on FOX does 3.87 million viewers in fast nationals

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Dave Meltzer | @davemeltzerWON | Oct 5, 2019 10:14 am


The debut of SmackDown on FOX last night averaged 3.87 million viewers in the fast nationals, which measure the top metered markets. SmackDown easily won the night in the key 18-49 demos and finished second to CBS overall.

The number was lower than most industry predictions of 4.0 million to 4.5 million, but on its own is a tremendous rating for pro wrestling.

The show did a 1.35 in the key demo, well ahead of second place Magnum P.I. on CBS that did a 0.7.

The goal of SmackDown is to average a 1.0 in that demo, and this first week with all the hotshotting and a 1.35 says that average is very far from a given.

Based on preliminary numbers, SmackDown will finish sixth for the week in the 18-49 demo.

Early indications are the show did about 70 percent male viewers, a far higher skew than WWE programming has done in years. In the male 18-49 demo, it more than tripled everything else on network television.

The actual ratings will be released on Tuesday morning.

[cero2k]

MORE NOTES

Some more notes the preliminary Smackdown ratings. As noted earlier today, the final ratings will be out on Monday or Tuesday. Unlike with UFC, because UFC aired live on the West Coast and had overruns, there shouldn't be major changes in this and the final numbers.

Smackdown did a 2.4 rating and 3,888,000 viewers for an average minute. It was down five percent from what FOX did in the same time slot one year ago for its Friday season openers of Last Man Standing, The Cool Kids and Hell's Kitchen. But all things considered, that isn't bad, and did triple of what FOX was doing in September with rerun programming in the time slot.

The peak quarter hour was the opener with The Rock, Becky Lynch and Baron Corbin, at 4.22 million viewers. That was to be expected as Dwayne Johnson was clearly the major draw on the show. The No. 2 draw on the show was Steve Austin, most likely, given Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair were just on Raw on Monday. But Austin, Undertaker and Sting were not there and Flair and Hogan were just shown in the crowd. It's impossible to know if the idea of seeing those wrestlers later kept the ratings up in hour two. One would think so.

From there:

Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks & Bayley lost 360,000 viewers, which sounds bad but really isn't. About 600,000 people turned off Raw on Monday after Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair's segment.

Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and the angle with The Fiend lost 133,000 viewers.

The Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon ladder match gained 235,000 viewers.

The eight-man tag match and Tyson Fury angle lost 222,000 viewers.

The Roman Reigns vs. Erick Rowan match lost 3,000 viewers.

The Brock Lesnar vs. Kofi Kingston match and Cain Velasquez angle gained 105,000 viewers.