Nielsen announces viewership error for June 17, updated ratings for WWE SmackDown & AEW Rampage
Updated viewership for last Friday's episodes of WWE SmackDown and AEW Rampage has been revealed.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics announced on Twitter that Nielsen made an error in last Friday's ratings. Nielsen undercounted out-of-home viewing and today reissued the data with updated numbers.
It was originally reported that last Friday's episode of SmackDown brought in 2.29 million viewers and had a demo rating of 0.57. Rampage was reported to bring in a record-low of 331,000 viewers with a 0.10 rating in the demo.
The new viewership numbers have the June 17th episode of the blue brand bringing in 2.39 million viewers and a 0.62 rating in the key demographic. The updated viewership for the June 17th episode of AEW Rampage is 369,000 viewers and 0.12 rating in the 18-49 year-old demographic.
Updated quarter-hours: patreon.com/posts/68165741
Nielsen undercounted out-of-home viewing for Friday. Reissued data is as folllows:
Smackdown:
2,389,000 viewers (+4% than earlier reported)
P18-49: 0.62 (+7%)
Rampage:
369,000 (+11%)
P18-49: 0.12 (+17%)
📊 Updated quarter-hours: patreon.com/posts/68165741 https://t.co/bHqBCLmrXm
Vince McMahon's appearance on WWE SmackDown drew a huge rating
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that WWE's Board of Directors was launching an investigation into a settlement reached between a former female employee of WWE and Vince McMahon.
Vince then stepped back as WWE CEO and his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, was named the Interim CEO and Chairwoman of the company.
The mainstream media scooped up the story and the controversy became headline news. WWE capitalized on the increased attention and advertised an appearance by Vince McMahon on the June 17th episode of WWE SmackDown.
With the updated data, Brandon Thurston is reporting that last Friday's episode of the blue brand was the most-viewed episode since the Christmas Day edition of 2020. That show followed an NFL game and brought in a whopping 3.3 million viewers.
The previous highest rating was the go-home episode of WWE SmackDown for WrestleMania 36. As for Rampage, the updated 369,000 viewers still represent the least-viewed episode in its normal time slot.
This is still the least-viewed Rampage in the normal time-slot for both P2+ and P18-49. It's not the lowest P18-49 including preemptions, though, as earlier data indicated. One preempted episode, on May 6 (0.11), is now lower. Four preemptions were lower in total viewership.
This means Friday's Smackdown with Vince McMahon was the most-viewed since Dec 25, 2020, when the show had an NFL lead-in and 3.3 million viewers. Besides that exceptional case, Friday's Smackdown is the highest since the pre-Wrestlemania episode in Apr 2020.
Vince McMahon also appeared on the June 20th episode of WWE RAW and brought in a big rating for the red brand. You can check out what Vince had to say on Monday's episode of RAW by clicking here.