The overnight ratings are in for Friday’s WWE SmackDown episode from Tulsa, OK at the BOK Center.
The episode drew an average of 2.499 million viewers, which is up from last Friday’s SmackDown episode that did an average of 2.047 million viewers on FOX, according to Spoiler TV.
The first hour did 2.575 million viewers while the second hour did 2.422 million viewers. To compare, a week ago, the first hour had 2.043 million viewers and the second hour had 2.050 million viewers.
It also pulled in an average of 0.60 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That is up from the 0.55 rating in the 18-49 demographic the show did last week. This is the overnight number and the actual rating won’t be released until later this week.
If this viewership number stays the same or even increases, it will outdraw the January 22nd episode that had 2.383 million viewers. It also did better than the first SmackDown with fans last month. Fans in various markets such as Albany, New York and Michigan were not able to watch SmackDown this week due to local coverage of NFL pre-season games. Thus, a portion of the viewership grouped in those fans watching NFL on FOX and increased SmackDown’s preliminary number.
Fox in many markets were preempted by NFL preseason games. Prelims last night would indicate Smackdown was watched by nearly 2.5 million viewers but this is probably too high. Wait for final ratings Monday. https://t.co/2BnKFLguK1
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) August 14, 2021
The episode featured WWE Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews drop the title to King Shinsuke Nakamura, Sasha Banks & SmackDown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair signed their SummerSlam contract, John Cena & WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns did a face-to-face to hype their SummerSlam main event.
