Steady rating a pre-Christmas present for pre-taped WWE SmackDown

The Tribal Chief was back on SmackDown last Friday, and the show featured angle setting up how his next challenger will be determined. That helped it maintain its rating, even with a pre-taped episode before a big holiday.

According to Wrestlenomics, the Dec. 23 SmackDown was watched by 2,108,000 total viewers and did a .55 rating with 18-49 year olds. The overall audience number is down from the previous week’s live episode. The demo rating is unchanged.

Year-over-year is similar to the weekly pattern, with the viewership down but the 18-49 number unchanged from the corresponding Dec. 2022 show.

Another clip show this Friday for the last episode of 2023, then a big New Year’s Revolution episode on Jan. 5. We’ll see how those do. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of the past year’s worth of SmackDown’s numbers:

• Dec. 23, 2022 – 2.38 / .55
• Dec. 30 – 2.63 / .64
• Jan. 6, 2023 – 2.26 / .53
• Jan. 13 – 2.33 / .55
• Jan. 20 – 2.26 / .55
• Jan. 27 – 2.54 / .67
• Feb. 3 – 2.38 / .61
• Feb. 10 – 2.47 / .64
• Feb. 17 – 2.38 / .58
• Feb. 24 – 2.41 / .62
• Mar. 3 – 2.45 / .59
• Mar. 10 – 2.32 / .63
• Mar. 17 – 2.26 / .59
• Mar. 24 – 2.22 / .58
• Mar. 31 – 2.49 / .69
• April 7 – 2.47 / .69
• April 14 – 2.27 / .58
• April 21 – 2.18 / .54
• April 28 – 2.47 / .67
• May 5 – 2.06 / .52
• May 12 – 2.15 / .56
• May 19 – 2.13 / .53
• May 26 – 2.16 / .52
• June 2 – 2.56 / .73
• June 9 – 2.28 / .60
• June 16 – 2.43 / .67
• June 23 – 2.35 / .61
• June 30 – 2.51 / .69
• July 7 – 2.56 / .76
• July 14 – 2.31 / .62
• July 21* – 1.23 / .36
• July 28 – 2.32 / .61
• Aug. 4 – 2.25 / .62
• Aug. 11 – 2.1 / .55
• Aug. 18 – 2.09 / .55
• Aug. 25 – 2.65 / .78
• Sept. 1 – 2.44 / .65
• Sept. 8 – 2.09 / .53
• Sept. 15 – 2.57 / .70
• Sept. 22 – 2.23 / .63
• Sept. 29 – 2.30 / .60
• Oct. 6 – 2.32 / .64
• Oct. 13 – 2.42 / .62
• Oct. 20 – 2.25 / .59
• Oct. 28* – 1.15 / .35
• Nov. 3 – 2.12 / .53
• Nov. 10 – 2.2 / .57
• Nov. 17 – 2.21 / .62
• Nov. 24* – 789,000 / .24
• Dec. 1 – 2.04 million / .59
• Dec. 8 – 2.38 / .63
• Dec. 15 – 2.24 / .55
• Dec. 22 – 2.11 / .55

* Aired on FS1

For complete results and this week’s SmackDown live blog click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For video highlights of the show click here.