After his death on Thursday, WWE made it known they’d be paying tribute to Hulk Hogan on SmackDown the following night.Adding that to a show that was already advertising SummerSlam headliners John Cena and Cody Rhodes, and the July 25 show figured to do well in the ratings. And it did.
Per Programming Insider, last week’s SmackDown was watched by 1,707,000 viewers. That’s the show’s biggest audience since the WrestleMania SmackDown on April 18. The rating from last Friday among 18-49 year olds was a .48
rating, its best in that metric since April 25’s WrestleMania fallout episode. Both are also obviously up from the previous episode, 10% in total viewership and 7% in the demo.
Also helping its cause was the lack of competition. There weren’t many nationally televised live options (ESPN had Little League Softball on all night), which helped SmackDown run away with first place on the night, at least with the 18-49 crowd. WWE wasn’t far from doubling-up the second-place show (ABC’s Celebrity Jeopardy!, with a .28 rating). Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime led the way it overall audience with 2.75 million viewers. SmackDown was ninth on all of television in total viewership.
Not sure if the Hogan memorials will have run their course by Friday, but Cena will be back. We’ll see how the SummerSlam go home fares in the ratings.
Here’s our running tally of the past year’s worth of those numbers:
- July 19. 2024 - 2.31 million viewers / .65 demo rating
- July 26 - 2.06 / .52
- Aug. 2 - 2.18 / .60
- Aug. 9 - 2.27 / .64
- Aug. 16 - 2.25 / .61
- Aug. 23 - 2.05 / .56
- Aug. 30 - 2.05 / .53
- Sept. 6 - 1.77 / .45
- Sept. 13* - 1.72 / .55
- Sept. 20 - 1.49 / .45
- Sept. 27 - 1.57 / .45
- Oct. 4 - 1.52 / .47
- Oct. 11 - 1.65 / .49
- Oct. 18 - 1.38 / .42
- Oct. 25 - 1.42 / .43
- Nov. 1 - 1.43 / .42
- Nov. 8 - 1.53 / .47
- Nov. 15 - 1.23 / .32
- Nov. 22 - 1.58 / .46
- Nov. 29 - 1.34 / .40
- Dec. 6 - 1.49 /.44
- Dec. 13 - 1.53 / .47
- Dec. 20 - 1.33 / .37
- Dec. 27 - 1.44 / .41
- Jan. 3, 2025** - 1.53 / .45
- Jan. 10 - 1.44 / .40
- Jan. 17 - 1.40 / . 42
- Jan. 24 - 1.44 / .44
- Jan. 31 - 1.58 / .51
- Feb. 7 - 1.51 / .48
- Feb. 14 - 1.38 / .42
- Feb. 21 - 1.74 / .51
- Feb. 28 - 1.73 / .52
- March 7 - 1.74 / .52
- March 14 - 1.57 / .52
- March 21 - 1.46 / .39
- March 28 - 1.35 / .40
- April 4 - 1.58 / .47
- April 11 - 1.55 / .45
- April 18 - 1.74 / .55
- April 25 - 1.60 / .51
- May 2 - 1.41 / .37
- May 9 - 1.46 / .41
- May 16 - 1.29 / .36
- May 23 - 1.38 / .33
- May 30 - 1.38 / .34
- June 6 - 1.42 / .42
- June 13 - 1.40 / .38
- June 20 - 1.52 / .38
- June 27 - 1.45 / .41
- July 4*** - 1.17 / .32
- July 11 - 1.40 / .37
- July 18 - 1.55 / .45
- July 25 -
* Moved from FOX to USA Network (broadcast to cable)
** Added a third hour
*** Returned to two hours
For complete results from the latest SmackDown, our live blog is here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here.
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