WWE SmackDown Sees Drop In Ratings While AEW Rampage Shoots Up

The Nielsen ratings are in for the wrestling shows that aired on Friday, March 10, with positive news for AEW and mixed news for WWE.

Per reporting from, ShowBuzz Daily and Wrestlenomics, "SmackDown" averaged 2,320,000 viewers overall (down five percent from the week prior) across its two hours, approximately 822,000 of which were in the vaunted "key demo" of adults aged 18 to 49 (up seven percent from the previous week). The latter figure translates to a 0.63 key demo rating, making "SmackDown" once again Friday's top show in P18-49 among broadcast prime time and cable originals. Nothing else came particularly close, with Univision's "Mi Camino es Amarte" coming in second place with a 0.43. CBS's "Fire Country" was the highest-rated English language show in the key demo after "SmackDown," posting a 0.41.

Friday's "SmackDown" heavily featured a five-way match for a WrestleMania title match against Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER which had an inconclusive ending. The episode closed with a segment featuring The Usos, Cody Rhodes, and Sami Zayn.

As for "Rampage," it showed positive momentum in both key metrics, averaging 447,000 viewers overall (up 13 percent over the previous week) across its 60 minutes, with roughly 196,000 of those viewers being in the key demo (up seven percent from the week prior). The last number translates to a 0.15 rating in P18-49, which was good enough for 19th place for the day among ShowBuzz Daily's rankings of cable originals. In the comparisons that the Wrestlenomics Patreon page does to the median of the last four weeks on a rolling basis, the surge for "Rampage" is much more pronounced. Compared to the median, "Rampage" was up 16 percent in total viewers, 46 percent across all viewers in the key P18-49 demo, 51 percent among men in the key demo, 62 percent in women in the key demo, 100 percent in adults aged 18 to 34, 24 percent in adults aged 35 to 49, 71 percent in female viewers aged 12 to 34, and a whopping 114 percent in males aged 12 to 34. Only viewers outside 18 to 49 (four percent) and adults aged 25 to 54 (12 percent) saw more typical increases, while adults aged 50+ were the only demo group that went down, with a five percent drop.