WWE SmackDown Enjoys Minor Ratings Increase, AEW Rampage Bounces Back

The wrestling ratings are in for Friday, February 24 are in, thanks to, as usual, reporting from both ShowBuzz Daily and Wrestlenomics.

On the broadcast network side, "WWE SmackDown" increased slightly from the prior week, with a one percent increase to an average of 2,408,000 total viewers, approximately 813,000 of which were in the "key demo," adults aged 18 to 49, which was an eight percent increase over February 17. The latter number resulted in a 0.62 key demo rating, making "SmackDown" the top show of the day in the key demo across the broadcast network prime time lineups and cable originals. None of the competition came particularly close, with the normally reliable "El Señor de los Cielos VIII" on Telemundo posting a 0.46 rating in the key demo. According to the Wrestlenomics Patreon page, which tracks the median rating across a rolling sample of the prior four weeks, the show was down one percent in total viewers against the median and was flat with the median in the key demo.

As for "AEW Rampage" on TNT, the number two promotion unsurprisingly rebounded from February 17, when the show was moved out of its usual 10 PM ET/PT time slot due to NBA All-Star Weekend programming and aired at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT, three to six hours outside of its usual time slot depending on the time zone. This past Friday, "Rampage" averaged 409,000 total viewers, approximately 138,000 of which were in the key demo for a 0.11 P18-49 rating. In the anomalous week-over-week comparison, the AEW "B-show" was up 43 percent in total viewers (up five percent compared to the rolling four-week median) and 59 percent in the key demo (down nine percent). Across cable originals for the day, "Rampage" ranked 30th in the key demo.