Friday Ratings: WWE Friday Night SmackDown Tops A Close Demo Battle

Bruce Haring
·2 min read
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It was one of the tightest ratings races in some time on Friday evening, as viewers apparently were split between wrestling, crime drama procedurals, and newsmags.

Coming out on top in the scrum was Fox’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown, which drew an 0.6. The big draw was the contract signing between Sasha Banks and Carmella for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship.

The CBS crime procedural lineup continued strong, with the night’s biggest total audience going to Blue Bloods at 6.16 million strong along with a solid 0.5 in demos. MacGyver and Magnum P.I. both created the early momentum for the Eye Network, leading in with identical 0.5 scores and growing the audience hour-by-hour. All of the shows held steady week-to-week from their season openers.

ABC’s Shark Tank checked in with an 0.5, down a tick from last week. The night’s highlight was an entrepreneur selling ice cream with hidden vegetables, a sneaky incentive to get more nutrition into your kids. It wasn’t enough to sustain moment for ABC’s 20/20 newsmag, which dipped to an 0.4, also down a tenth.

NBC had a repeat of The Weakest Link to start its night, followed by a new Dateline, which clocked in with an 0.5 for its examination of a missing bachelorette party attendee.

The CW offered Dean Cain and Laura McKenzie hosting the debut of The Christmas Caroler Challenge, which brought along ten groups of carolers competing in front of celebrity judges. It was greeted with a humbug, coming in with an 0.1 for its two hour-long segments.

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