Bloodline drama helps keep SmackDown’s numbers steady against NBA, NHL

Roman Reigns and Bloodline drama were back on Friday nights for the second straight week, but the May 19 episode of SmackDown wasn’t quite as loaded as it was the week before.

Without World Heavyweight Tournament matches and with competition from both the NBA and NHL Conference Finals, that mean a slight downturn in the blue brand’s numbers last Friday. The latest SmackDown pulled an audience of 2,113,000. That’s down less than one percent from May 12. The show did a .53 among 18-49 year olds, which was a roughly 3.5% week-to-week decline.

It was still good enough to make SmackDown the highest rated show on broadcast, and third highest on cable for the day, finishing only behind the Miami/Boston basketball game (which did a 2.05 in the demo with 6.13 million total viewers) and TNT’s post-game show. WWE finished just in front of the Vegas/Dallas hockey game, which scored a .52 in the demo and had an audience of 1.71 million. It’s also a much better rating than WWE did in the same spot on the calendar in 2022.

Next week’s show is pre-taped, but SmackDown may catch a break competition-wise if the playoffs continue as they have been (both current NBA series are best of sevens with one team up three games to zero, and both NHL ones are 2-0).

Regardless of what the schedule looks like for May 26’s Night of Champions go home, we’ll let you know how that episode did next week. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of the past year’s worth of SmackDown’s numbers:

• 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
• Mar. 10 - 2.32 / .63
• Mar. 17 - 2.26 / .59
• Mar. 24 - 2.22 / .58
• Mar. 31 - 2.49 / .69
• April 7 - 2.47 / .69
• April 14 - 2.27 / .58
• April 21 - 2.18 / .54
• April 28 - 2.47 / .67
• May 5 - 2.06 / .52
• May 12 - 2.15 / .56
• May 19 - 2.13 / .53

* 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