Pre-taped Holiday episode delivers one of SmackDown’s biggest audiences of the year

The next-to-last SmackDown of 2022 seemed to have a lot going against it. Airing on Dec. 23 at the start of a long Christmas weekend, the show was pre-taped. That means spoilers were out there, and those told people there weren’t going to be any major story beats playing out on the show.

But it also aired in the midst of a terrible cold spell & winter storm, which likely meant a lot of folks were in their homes looking for a fun way to spend a couple hours.

It all worked out to bring last Friday’s episode an audience of 2,376,000. That was more than 8.5% better than the week before, its highest viewership since Sept. 23, and among the better numbers of the year.

Ratings were also up. The .55 among 18-49 year olds was almost a 4% week-to-week improvement. It was good for third place on all of television, trailing only two college football bowl games on ESPN.

The weather won’t be as bad this Friday, but John Cena will be there. While you contemplate whether that edition can deliver SmackDown’s biggest audience of the year, here’s a rundown of the past eight months or so of the blue show’s numbers:

• April 1 - 2.36 million / .61
• April 8 - 2.23 / .60
• Apri 15 - 2.14 / .48
• April 22 - 1.95 / .47
• April 29 - 1.95 / .38
• May 6 - 2.00 / .46
• May 13 - 1.89 / .40
• May 20 - 2.03 / .45
• May 27 - 1.88 / .43
• June 3 - 1.94 / .47
• June 10 - 1.91 / .44
• June 17 - 2.29 / .57
• June 24 - 2.23 / .53
• July 1 - 2.14 / .49
• July 8 - 2.13 / .47
• July 15 - 2.08 / .47
• July 22 - 2.26 / .62
• July 29 - 2.19 / .52
• Aug. 5 - 2.09 / .49
• Aug. 12 - 1.93 / .44
• Aug. 19 - 2.08 / .47
• Aug. 26 - 1.99 / .48
• Sept. 2 - 2.08 / .49
• Sept. 9 - 2.37 / .57
• Sept. 16 - 2.21 / .50
• Sept. 23 - 2.54 / .63
• Sept. 30 - 2.21 / .54
• Oct. 7 - 2.24 / .54
• Oct. 14 - 2.27 / .54
• Oct. 21 - 2.23 / .52
• Oct. 28* - 835K / .23
• Nov. 4 - 2.14 million / .48
• Nov. 11 - 2.26 / .58
• Nov. 18 - 2.23 / .56
• Nov. 25 - 2.17 / .54
• Dec. 2* - 902K / .25
• Dec. 9 - 2.31 million / .57
• Dec. 16 - 2.19 / .52
• Dec. 23 - 2.38 / .55

* Aired on FS1

For complete results and this week’s SmackDown live blog click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For video highlights of the show click here.

Numbers via Showbuzz Daily