WWE Smackdown Ratings: The return of Roman Reigns to WWE television at the season premiere of “WWE SmackDown” resulted in a modest boost in viewership.
According to “Wrestlenomics,” the October 13 edition of “SmackDown” witnessed a 4% rise in viewership compared to the previous week, with 2,417,000 turning in, up from 2,319,000 for the October 6 event. However, last week’s show saw a 2% drop in viewership among the 18-49 age group.
the blue brand was the top sports program on Friday, but last week, the Colorado vs. Stanford college football game, which attracted 3,288,000 viewers, dethroned “SmackDown” to claim the top spot. Over the past few months, “SmackDown” has had a steady growth in viewers. In comparison to the same week in 2022, the show saw a 6.3 percent gain in overall viewers and a significant 14.8 percent increase in the 18-49 demographic.
The return of the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, Roman Reigns, was the main story leading up to the program. His star power was reflected in the view count on WWE’s YouTube channel, as his segment with LA Knight garnered the most views from last Friday’s broadcast, totaling 1.2 million views. The whole sequence including Reigns, Knight, John Cena, Paul Heyman, and Solo Sikoa came in second with over 900,000 views. On last week’s “SmackDown,” Reigns and his WrestleMania 39 opponent, Cody Rhodes, had a brief staredown, suggesting a possible rematch, which earned over 870,000 views.
The WWE channel’s most popular YouTube videos from last week’s program were dominated by Reigns and Knight, and two of their additional videos cracked the top 10.
Over 600,000 people saw the introduction of Kevin Owens to the blue brand, Jade Cargill’s backstage exchange with Charlotte Flair, and the declaration of Nick Aldis as the new SmackDown General Manager.