NFL Draft pushes SmackDown to new lows

WWE knew that going head-to-head with night two of the NFL Draft - the first major sports event since COVID-19 shut down the vast majority of all sports and entertainment productions - on April 27 was a tough draw. It’s part of why they spent a week hyping a Triple H celebration which ended up including Shawn Michaels, Vince McMahon, and others for SmackDown.

Perhaps it helped, and their ratings and viewership would have looked worse without some of the biggest names in company history anchoring the episode. The audience stayed above 2 million (take that Raw)!

Ratings-wise, the second & third rounds of the Draft pushed WWE to their worst numbers with men since moving to Fox Fridays last fall. They finished third among 18-34 year olds in the fast nationals for Friday night, behind football picks and CBS’ Blue Bloods.

Here’s last night’s network numbers:

Showbuzz Daily

And here’s how last night compared to every Fox Friday SmackDown episode (all data via Showbuzz Daily):

The NFL won’t be on ABC next Friday, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see SmackDown’s numbers go up for the first time since the WrestleMania 36 go home edition.

For complete results and the live blog for SmackDown this week click here. To read a complete recap & review of all the night’s events click here. For a full playlist of the show click here.