WWE Draft gives SmackDown a bump while Rampage has its worst ratings yet

The final television numbers are in for Fri., Oct. 1.

As expected, the WWE Draft boosted SmackDown’s numbers. Viewership didn’t increase that much; the audience of 2.252 million was roughly 5% better than the week before. The rating among 18 - 49 year olds rating was up more significantly; last Friday’s .62 was almost 13% better than Sept. 24’s number.

It delivered a win for WWE and FOX in the key demographic, but just barely. SmackDown edged out the .61 scored by ABC’s celebration of Disney World’s 50th anniversary, The Most Magical Story on Earth. But the Mouse won the 18 - 34 year olds by a similarly slim margin (.41 to the blue brand’s .40).

The picture wasn’t quite as rosy for AEW over on cable. Rampage’s latest performance was the worst of its eight week history. The show had slightly less viewers than the week prior. Oct. 1’s 622,000 was a little less than 3% down from the week prior. The demo number took a steeper fall, losing nearly 14% to drop to .25 among 18 - 49 year olds.

Still, as TNT’s third hour of pro wrestling continues to find its floor, it was still the third highest rated show on cable with the 18 - 49 demo. In 18 - 34 year olds, it was second only to football.

We’ll see where the trends take us next Friday. After that, it’ll be harder to tell what the numbers mean as baseball starts bumping SmackDown to cable (and hockey moves AEW Dynamite to Saturdays).

Source: Showbuzz Daily