The TV ratings and viewership data are in for the Dec.12 episode of WWE SmackDown on the USA Network.
Per Wrestlenomics, SmackDown was watched by 1,240,000 total viewers and did a .26 rating in the 18-49 year old demographic. The episode — which featured John Cena-focused but John Cena-free build to Saturday Night’s Main Event, and a reunion of Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest’s mixed tag team — had 17% more viewers than the previous week’s Survivor Series fallout episode, and was up 8% in the demo.
It was first among all cable originals in 18-49 rating on the night.
Which may be faint praise, as Programming Insider’s report on last Friday’s ratings comes under the headline “CBS Dominates in Total Viewers; Abysmal Showing Across the Board in Adults 18-49”. Second place on cable went to ESPN2’s coverage of college women’s volleyball with a .18 rating from an overall audience of 718K. On broadcast, Sheriff County led the way for CBS with the same .26 demo rating SmackDown had… but with 2.96 million total viewers.
We’re heading into the heart of the winter holidays, and Friday’s show is WWE’s last live SmackDown of 2025.. We’ll see how it does, then update our running tracker of SmackDown results from the past year with its numbers:
- Dec. 13, 2024 – 1.53 million viewers / .44 demo rating
- 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 – 1.71 / .48
- Aug. 1 – 1.54 / .46
- Aug. 8 – 1.56 / .48
- Aug. 15 – 1.43 / .35
- Aug. 22 – 1.26 / .35
- Aug. 29 – 1.15 / .28
- Sept. 5 – 1.59 / .51
- Sept. 12 – 1.32 / .37
- Sept. 19 – 1.34 / .37
- Sept. 26 – 1.24 / .35
- Oct. 3º – 1.03 / .23
- Oct. 10 – 1.03 / .22
- Oct. 17 – 1.18 / .28
- Oct. 24 – 1.15 / .29
- Oct. 31 – 993K / .20
- Nov. 7 – 1.14 million / .26
- Nov. 14 – 1.16 / .27
- Nov. 21 – 1.21 / .29
- Nov. 28 – 1.14 / .28
- Dec. 5 – 1.06 / .24
- Dec. 12 – 1.24 / .26
* Added a third hour
** Returned to two hours
º Nielsen began using their Big Data + Panel calculation
For complete results from the latest SmackDown, our live blog is here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here.
