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Something that had been close to happening before football season, and was impossible during the season, finally happened this week. For the first time in the history of television ratings, which date back to the late 1940s, a pro wrestling television show finished first for the week in network ratings.
Smackdown on 2/16, featuring the first advertised appearance of The Rock on a WWE television show in years, did 2,555,000 viewers and an 0.75 in 18-49. The total viewer numbers were actually only sixth place for the night and nowhere near the top. But the 18-49 number topped the Thurday night premiere episode of the season of Ghosts (0.67) and Young Sheldon (0.63) on CBS for the top spot of the week.
WWE was very lucky because the win was due to two things. The first was that the NBA All-Star activity was on cable and not network TV. Smackdown was actually No. 3 on television for the week behind All-Star Saturday night at 1.55 and the All-Star game on Sunday which also did a 1.55. It was notable that the Saturday skills competition very slightly beat the game itself in 18-49.
The other bit of luck was the Daytona 500 that was scheduled for 2/18, was moved to 2/19, which would be covered in next week’s ratings. The race did 5.96 million viewers and an 0.85, and the post-race show on FOX beat it at 0.88. So Smackdown would look to have little chance of repeating this week. Those numbers would have been significantly higher on Sunday as scheduled and knocked Smackdown down to No. 3 for the week.
Prior to football season Smackdown came close one week, coming in at No. 2 behind a major soccer game on Univision. When it comes to pro wrestling on network television, its best period ever was 1950, when it finished the season as the No. 10 show on television. But it never hit No. 1 during that period.
