SmackDown was Friday’s top rated show for the sixth week in a row

For a wide variety of reasons, television numbers are never again going to be what they were during the Monday Night War. So when talking about whether or not wrestling is currently “hot”, it’s useful to look at how shows perform relative to the other choices on the other shows on broadcast and cable.

SmackDown was again the top rated program with 18-49 year olds on Mar. 3, marking the sixth straight week WWE’s blue brand’s had a share of first place on Friday nights. You have to go back to Jan. 20 to find anything with a higher demo number than the blue brand.

That’s why we’re comfortable making the claim its a “hot” show, even if its .59 in the demo is 5% lower than Feb. 24’s rating. Overall viewership was up, to 2,451,000.

In second place last Friday was a new Shark Tank on ABC, which scored a .48 in the demo. CBS’ Fire Country did a .46 to finish third. We’ll see if WWE can keep this streak going for FOX to WrestleMania and beyond.

Here’s a rundown of the past eleven months or so of SmackDown’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
• Dec. 30 - 2.63 / .64
• Jan. 6 - 2.26 / .53
• Jan. 13 - 2.33 / .55
• Jan. 20 - 2.26 / .55
• Jan. 27 - 2.54 / .67
• Feb. 3 - 2.38 / .61
• Feb. 10 - 2.47 / .64
• Feb. 17 - 2.38 / .58
• Feb. 24 - 2.41 / .62
• Mar. 3 - 2.45 / .59

* 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