WWE Smackdown rating on Fox for the crowd-free format at Performance Center with Cena and Hardy, key metrics compared to 2020 trends and year-ago numbers

The first episode of WWE Smackdown on Fox without a live audience held up well in terms of viewership, drawing 2.470 million viewers. That is slightly up from the prior week 2.456 million total. The average viewership this year was 2.500 million coming into this week.

Viewership for the show using overnight preliminary data dropped from hour one to hour two by around 170,o00 viewers.

The broadcast rating of 1.59 was also above last week’s 1.51, but below the 1.71 two weeks ago. The average so far this year heading into this week was 1.55. The year-ago comparable number was 1.36 in terms of the broadcast rating equivalent, so it’s above year-ago numbers on USA Network on Tuesday nights.

Smackdown finished no. 2 for the night among the 18-49 demographic with 0.7 rating, a notch below ABC’s “Shark Tank” which drew a 0.8 rating in that demo and nearly twice the total viewership (4.723 million).

The key is whether people tuned in out of curiosity, but were turned off by the format’s lack of crowd energy.