The Black Friday ratings for both WWE SmackDown and AEW Rampage have been revealed. The ratings were delayed due to the Thanksgiving holidays taking place in the United States. On average, 2.149 million people watched SmackDown, while 431,000 viewers watched Rampage. The numbers have been obtained by Brandon Thurston from Wrestlenomics:
This was the least viewed episode of Rampage yet. The program debuted in August. It was 2nd-lowest in P18-49, ahead of Oct 8 (0.17).
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) November 30, 2021
Smackdown was #4 in P18-49, behind college basketball and football on ESPN (0.82, 0.61), as well as How the Grinch Stole Christmas on NBC (0.58). pic.twitter.com/Z8naDM09VX
SmackDown has seen an increase in viewers compared to the previous week. As the November 19th show drew 2.064 million viewers, the increase in viewers calculates to approximately 4.1%. For AEW Rampage, the viewership has decreased dramatically. The drop from 556,000 viewers to 431,000 calculates to approximately 25%. As mentioned by Thurston, this is the lowest viewership of AEW Rampage since the show began airing in August.
The 18-49 demographic viewership follows the same trend of an increase for WWE and a decrease for AEW. SmackDown saw an increase from 0.52 to 0.57 [741,000 viewers], while AEW dropped form 0.22 to 0.18 [238,000 viewers]. Rampage ranked 17th for key demographic viewership on Friday night on cable, while SmackDown ranked 4th overall.
SmackDown mainly focused on the fallout from Survivor Series, with the next challenger for Roman Reigns and the return of Brock Lesnar both announced on the show. The main event of AEW Rampage saw Eddie Kingston face Daniel Garcia.
Featured image: WWE
