Preliminary Ratings Revealed For 12/30 WWE SmackDown

The preliminary "WWE SmackDown" ratings were revealed on Saturday by Wrestlenomics' Brandon Thurston. According to Thurston's report, the December 30 episode of "SmackDown" prelim rating was 2,441,000 viewers. Thurston also noted that the final projected viewership could be around 2.6 million viewers, which means that it's expected to be the highest "SmackDown" audience since late 2020.

 During Friday's episode of "SmackDown," John Cena returned to team up with Kevin Owens to defeat The Bloodline's Sami Zayn and the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns in the main event. Unsurprisingly, it was noted in the Wrestlenomics report that the second hour was slightly more viewed than the first hour.

Also, during the show, Charlotte Flair made her return and defeated Ronda Rousey to become the new "SmackDown" Women's Champion, Uncle Howdy attacked Bray Wyatt after Wyatt attacked a cameraman, Drew McIntyre returned to save Sheamus from The Bloodline's Solo Sika, and Braun Strowman challenged Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship, which ended with Gunther and the other Imperium members (Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci) attacking him. The full results of last Friday's episode are available here. 

As reported, last week's episode of "SmackDown" saw an average of 2,376,000 viewers. The December 23 episode was the highest number since September 23 and was eight percent higher than the previous Friday. The key demographic was also up 6 percent with an average of 717,000 viewers aged 18-49. The final ratings for the December 30 episode of "SmackDown" are slated to be revealed around Tuesday afternoon.