WWE SmackDown on Fox Ratings Drop for 2nd Week in Row

For the second consecutive week, Friday Night SmackDown on Fox experienced a significant dip in viewership.

According to Showbuzz Daily, SmackDown averaged 2.4 million viewers over two hours this Friday after drawing 2.9 million viewers Oct. 11. The debut episode of SmackDown on Fox two weeks ago averaged 3.9 million viewers.

SmackDown also dropped in every demo in comparison to last week aside from women aged 18-49.

Although this week's episode of SmackDown was arguably WWE's strongest effort since it made the move from WWE Network to Fox, the poor viewership may have been a residual effect based on last week's widely panned WWE draft episode.

This week's SmackDown also had stiff competition in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and Houston Astros.

Those who didn't tune in missed a fairly action-packed show that included Roman Reigns vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the Intercontinental Championship and a Six-Pack Challenge to determine the No. 1 contender for the SmackDown Women's Championship, which Nikki Cross won.

There was also an entertaining Miz TV segment in which The Miz interviewed Bayley and Sasha Banks. Plus, the main event of the show pitted Reigns and Daniel Bryan against Nakamura and Baron Corbin in a tag team match.

Even with the ratings drop-off, SmackDown leads the way among weekly televised wrestling shows. Raw did 2.28 million viewers this week, while AEW Dynamite finished with 1.01 million. NXT reeled in 712,000.

Odds are SmackDown will fall in the ratings once again next week since it will air on FS1 with Game 3 of the World Series slotted for the coveted television spot on Fox.

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