AEW Rampage Sees Best Numbers With NBA Lead In

Welcome back to the first edition in a while of the weekend wrestling ratings with WWE Smackdown and AEW Rampage. Both shows were on their normal days and stations.

This week’s edition of WWE Smackdown was viewed by 2,265,000 million people and did .58  in the 18-49 demo.

WWE Smackdown, Friday on Fox (8-10pm):
2,265,000 viewers
P18-49 rating: 0.58
#3 in P18-49 among broadcast primetime and cable originals

AEW Rampage on TNT (9:42-10:42pm):
639,000 viewers
P18-49 rating: 0.21
#7 cable original in P18-49
📊 https://t.co/qDSSxyAPtr pic.twitter.com/qnqPiaQKwS

— Wrestlenomics (@wrestlenomics) April 17, 2023

The demo tops the broadcast television charts, but the number was also down from last week. In addition, the viewership number dipped slightly by 200,000 viewers. These are not too shabby considering the NBA playoffs were on cable. But WWE Smackdown continues to do well despite what those in the business think and how FOX feels.

Nobody expects wrestling ratings to be what they were during the height of the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars between Raw and Nitro. Smackdown is rating well consistently well over 2 million viewers every Friday night. Let’s see if that continues with the Stanley Cup Playoffs starting in the NHL, while the NBA playoffs continue.

Overall Smackdown only trailed the NBA on the night for both broadcast and cable television. That’s really good.

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On the other side of things, AEW Rampage did its best numbers in a really long time. AEW Rampage was viewed by 639,000 viewers and did a .21 in the 18-49 demo. Depending on the week, fans normally do not know what time Rampage is on during a hectic playoff schedule with NBA and NHL. However, this week, thanks to a strong lead-in from the NBA, Rampage had its best numbers in several months maybe even over a year.

Rampage had a strong lead-in from the Heat-Bulls play-in game immediately before.

Smackdown was only behind the NBA games on TNT and ESPN.

📋 Full report: https://t.co/cW4nvFvftX pic.twitter.com/iy9ft6kP2h

— Wrestlenomics (@wrestlenomics) April 17, 2023

The demo is the best since April 2022, when the NBA was a lead-in for Rampage, while the viewership number is the best since January 2023. The show finished seventh on cable according to Showbuzzdaily.com.

Let’s see if the numbers continue to hold steady instead of constant fluctuation in the numbers. This week Rampage is on a Saturday. It just might be a good idea to continue to follow the NBA.