Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/11/30/how-the-grinch-stole-the-demo-from-smackdown/
Friday Night SmackDown saw a rise in its viewership for a show built around a battle royal to set up the next contender for Roman Reigns.
The November 26th edition of the show averaged 2,149,000 viewers with 741,000 (0.57) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
The numbers are SmackDown’s highest since the October 22nd episode the day after the Crown Jewel event and represent increases of 4 percent in overall viewers and 8.5 percent in 18-49 from the week prior.
According to Brandon Thurston’s data, two of the key areas that saw increases were Males 18-49 (403,000 to 455,000) and Males 18-34 (117,000 and 175,000) from the prior week.
SmackDown finished second among network programming in the 18-49 demo right behind NBC’s airing of ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ that edged out SmackDown with 0.58. SmackDown finished first in 18-34 among network programs.
WWE faced sports competition from the two college football games airing on ESPN and FS 1 that finished #2 (0.61) and #6 (0.26) among cable originals that day.
For the month of November, SmackDown averaged 2,103,000 viewers and 723,000 in the 18-49 demo over four episodes on Fox.
In Canada, SmackDown averaged 144,000 viewers and 72,500 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. It was a competitive night that included Curling, NHL, and NBA coverage. SmackDown finished tenth in overall viewers among the sports programming for the night but was fourth in the demo.