Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: Smackdown, wrestling, wwe

Smackdown Maintains Ratings Lead with Corbin-Packed Episode

The overnight ratings are in for Friday Night Smackdown, and the numbers are looking good, as far as good can be expressed as a relative concept in 2020. Smackdown was the number one show for the night, tied with an hour of Shark Tank and an hour of Dateline. Ratings in the 18-49 demo remained steady from last week, though viewership fell slightly. But a win is a win, and we all know the reason for this win.

That's right, Baron Corbin. The Ratings King of Friday Nights was featured heavily on the show with, Corbin appearing in a backstage skit as well as a match. Corbin approached Shorty G backstage and planted seeds of jealousy over Matt Riddle taking his spot while reminding Shorty of the King's Ransom Corbin put on Riddle's head. Later in the match, Corbin fought Drew Gulak in a five-star classic, which he won, of course. Matt Riddle tried to interfere and then attacked Corbin after the match, but Shorty G came out to make the save. Can you say greatest alliance in WWE history? I'm so happy for Baron Corbin for finally making a friend backstage. The Chadster knew if Corbin just put himself out there; eventually, it would happen.

Oh, yeah, we're here to talk about ratings. So Smackdown had a .5 in the 18-49 demographic for both hours, same as last week. Hour one had 1.873 million viewers, while hour two had 1.911. That shows that people who were watching the first hour and saw all the great Baron Corbin stuff probably called up all their friends and told them tune in, causing the second hour to be higher than the first, which is unusually for a WWE show. Both hours were down, as well as the average of 1.892 million viewers compared to last week's 1.971 million viewers. But hey, just ask Tony Khan and Vince McMahon; It's the demo that matters.

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