WWE SmackDown Levels Off While AEW Rampage Drops In Friday Nielsen Ratings

Featuring a celebration of Roman Reigns' 1,000th day as world champion and coming off of the latest Bloodline angle at WWE Night of Champions, the June 2 episode of "WWE SmackDown" did one of its best Nielsen ratings in recent years, a 41% increase from the previous week in the key demo with a less significant but still sizable increase overall. Meanwhile, "AEW Rampage" hadn't exactly returned to previous levels since returning to its regular time slot after seven weeks of live sports preemptions. With Reigns not on "SmackDown" and "Rampage" continuing to be serve as a distinct B-show relative to "Dynamite," how did ratings hold up a week after The Tribal Chief pulled such a huge number?

According to reporting from ShowBuzzDaily as well as Wrestlenomics on both their Twitter and Patreon pages, "SmackDown" averaged approximately 2,278,000 viewers across its two hours (down 11% from the previous week), approximately 783,000 of which were in the "key demo" most valued by advertisers, adults aged 18 to 49 (down 18% from the week prior). The latter number translates to a 0.60 rating in 18 to 49, trailing behind only ABC's NBA Finals coverage in that demo among Friday's cable originals and broadcast prime-time programming.

"Rampage," meanwhile, averaged 291,000 viewers across its 60 minutes (down 18% from the previous week), approximately 130,000 of which were in the key demo (down 13% from the week prior). The latter number translates to a 0.10 rating in 18 to 49, which earned it 27th place among ShowBuzzDaily's rankings of the day's cable originals. This was the lowest total viewership in the history of the show's regular time slot (Friday at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT) and the second-lowest in the key demo, just behind the December 2 episode, which did a 0.08 rating.

The NBA Finals on ABC averaged 10,414,000 viewers with a 3.23 rating in 18 to 49.

For a more extensive picture, the Wrestlenomics Patreon page tracks how each show did in various demographics in relation to the median of the prior four weeks' numbers. By that metric, the news for "SmackDown" was largely positive, particularly given the NBA competition, with increases across all demos tracked outside of adults aged 35 to 49, which was flat with the median. The biggest percentage change came with young adults, as adults aged 18 to 34 were up 31% over the median. Everything else was within Nielsen's stated 10% margin of error.

As for Rampage, their numbers were more mixed, thanks to the combination of a bad rating and the previous four weeks of preemptions. The biggest percentage change on the AEW side was a negative one, with a whopping 52% drop in male viewers aged 12 to 34. The show also saw drops of 26% in adults aged 18 to 34, 21% in adults aged 50+ as well as men aged 18 to 49, and 20% in all viewers outside adults 18 to 49.

The biggest positive change was a 44% jump in female viewers aged 18 to 49, while female viewers aged 12 to 34 jumped 22% over the median and adults aged 35 to 49 increased 19%. Despite the preemptions in the mix, overall viewership was down 10% from the median.

With "AEW Collision" debuting this weekend, it remains to be seen what kind of effect its introduction will have on the perception of "Rampage" and how that could further impact viewership.