Christmas WWE SmackDown draws best ratings since Fox debut

With the help of an NFL lead-in and a card featuring three title matches, the Christmas night episode of SmackDown drew the show’s best audience since its Fox debut, averaging 3.303 million viewers this past Friday.

The final viewership number is almost identical to the 3.336 million viewers the episode drew in the fast nationals that were released on Saturday morning.

Numbers for the NFL game are not currently available, but the post-game show that directly led into SmackDown averaged 11.5 million viewers and drew a 3.15 rating in the 18-49 demo.

SmackDown drew a 0.96 rating in 18-49, up 60 percent from the last time the show aired on Fox two weeks earlier. That beat everything else on the networks with the exception of the NFL coverage and the NBA Christmas night game on ABC that drew a 1.82 in the demo. It also beat everything on cable for the day with the exception of another NBA game on ESPN.

In 18-34, SmackDown averaged a 0.68 rating. That also beat everything else on the networks except NFL coverage and the NBA. That more than doubled the 0.3 rating SmackDown did the last time it aired on Fox.

Year-over-year, SmackDown was up 35.9 percent in total viewers and 37.1 percent in 18-49. It was also up 70 percent in the 18-34 demo.