SmackDown ratings rise with The Rock, but maybe not as much as expected

The Rock returned on the Mar. 1 SmackDown, and the show’s number rose. But not quite to the levels they were at shortly after Rocky’s WrestleMania program started last month.

Overall viewership and the 18-49 demo rating were both up 3% from the previous week to 2,348000 and .64, according to Wrestlenomics. But since Feb, 23’s pre-taped show had SmackDown’s lowest numbers of the year, last Friday’s edition was still near the bottom of the show’s 2024 rankings in both metrics.

What it wasn’t near the bottom of was last Friday’s overall television landscape. SmackDown finished first again, beating out all broadcast competition and ESPN’s primetime NBA game, the Boston Celtics blowout win over the Dallas Mavericks, which per Sports Media Watch did a .41 with 18-49 year olds and had a total audience of 1.45 million.

And we can largely attribute that to Rock and The Bloodline. The end of their lengthy promo segment in the third quarter-hour was SmackDown’s high point last Friday, hitting 2.75 million viewers and a 0.75 rating in 18-49. By the end of the night, those were down to 2.2 million and a 0.57 demo rating.

The Rock will be on this Friday’s show, as will Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins. We’ll see how that show does. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of the past year’s worth of SmackDown’s numbers:

• Mar. 3. 2024 - 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
• May 26 - 2.16 / .52
• June 2 - 2.56 / .73
• June 9 - 2.28 / .60
• June 16 - 2.43 / .67
• June 23 - 2.35 / .61
• June 30 - 2.51 / .69
• July 7 - 2.56 / .76
• July 14 - 2.31 / .62
• July 21* - 1.23 / .36
• July 28 - 2.32 / .61
• Aug. 4 - 2.25 / .62
• Aug. 11 - 2.1 / .55
• Aug. 18 - 2.09 / .55
• Aug. 25 - 2.65 / .78
• Sept. 1 - 2.44 / .65
• Sept. 8 - 2.09 / .53
• Sept. 15 - 2.57 / .70
• Sept. 22 - 2.23 / .63
• Sept. 29 - 2.30 / .60
• Oct. 6 - 2.32 / .64
• Oct. 13 - 2.42 / .62
• Oct. 20 - 2.25 / .59
• Oct. 28* - 1.15 / .35
• Nov. 3 - 2.12 / .53
• Nov. 10 - 2.2 / .57
• Nov. 17 - 2.21 / .62
• Nov. 24* - 789,000 / .24
• Dec. 1 - 2.04 million / .59
• Dec. 8 - 2.38 / .63
• Dec. 15 - 2.24 / .55
• Dec. 22 - 2.11 / .55
• Dec. 29** - 1.36 / .28
• Jan. 5, 2024 - 2.47 / .67
• Jan. 12 - 2.38 / .64
• Jan. 19 - 2.41 / .62
• Jan. 26 - 2.48 / .71
• Feb. 2 - 2.47 / .74
• Feb. 9 - 2.58 / .75
• Feb. 16 - 2.56 / .75
• Feb. 23 - 2.27 / .62
• Mar. 1 - 2.35 / .64

* Aired on FS1
** “Best of” clip show

For complete results and this week’s SmackDown live blog click here, to read a recap & review of the night’s events click here, and to check out video highlights of the episode click here.