SmackDown & Rampage top broadcast & cable ratings on Aug. 27

Last Friday was the first pre-taped episode of AEW Rampage. Beyond the availability of spoilers, nobody expected the Aug. 27 show to come near the previous week’s numbers. You can only have one “First Dance”, after all.

Still, even without being live or having CM Punk’s return to pro wrestling, AEW continued to post good numbers in the rough 10pm ET time slot. Rampage was viewed by 722,000 people, the smallest audience of its brief three show history. In the 18 - 49 year old demographic, it delivered a .34 rating, better than its premiere episode on Aug. 13. Both numbers are way down from Aug. 20, but again... no $#!+.

Over on the network dial, SmackDown’s Aug. 27 numbers weren’t quite as good as the overnights Becky Lynch was bragging about. But everyone knew those were inflated by NFL pre-season action that pre-empted WWE on FOX in several markets. Still, last Friday’s show was watched by 2.25 million people, the best viewership the blue brand’s had since July 16 for the first post-ThunderDome episode. The SummerSlam fallout show with The Man also posted a very impressive .59 in the key demo.

The important thing in both cases is that AEW & WWE had the highest rated show among their competition. SmackDown was way out in front off everything else on the broadcast networks among both 18 - 34 (.34 to Shark Tank’s .21) and 18 - 49 year olds (.59 to 20/20’s .39). Rampage came in second to football among cable originals in the former demo (.14 to the .25 scored by NFL Network’s primetime Vikings/Chiefs game), but beat the NFL from a worse time slot with the latter group (.34 to .31).

No wonder TV companies pay so much money for these scripted athletic exhibitions!

Source: Showbuzz Daily