Friday Ratings: Fox’s ‘WWE Friday Night SmackDown’ Wins Demos In Return To Live Audience

Bruce Haring
·1 min read
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Wrestling fans starved for the cheers, howls and boos that only a live audience can bring got their money’s worth last night on Fox’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown.

For the first time in more than a year, the show was held in front of a live audience, and they delighted in letting their heroes and villians know how they felt. The SmackDown was in Houston for the evening, and the event kicked off a 25-city tour.

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The SmackDown scored big with the home TV audience as well, pulling down an 0.6 in demos to easily win the night for Fox.

At CBS, Secret Celebrity Renovations came in with an 0.3, as In The Heights actor and singer Anthony Ramos honored the drama teacher who first recognized his potential. It also had the night’s largest gross audience with 2.67 million tuning in.

But the lead-in failed to hold the audience for the trailing Love Island, which ticked down to an 0.2. A Blue Bloods rerun ended the Eye Network’s evening.

At NBC, an American Ninja Warrior rerun hurt the Dateline 10 PM segment, as it dropped to an 0.3 for its examination of a Chicago nightclub owner’s slaying.

ABC’s fare on the night was a rerun of newsmag 20/20.

The CW saw Charmed pull a 01, showing some growth. But Dynasty continues to draw a friends-and-family-only size audience, limping in with an 0.0 in demos.

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