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The Jan. 27 episode of SmackDown was WWE’s final push toward Royal Rumble, one of the company’s most popular matches and events.
That was one factor going for last Friday’s show when it came to its performance. Another was the red hot program that closed both SmackDown and Royal Rumble — the one involving Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, The Usos, and some guy named Sami Zayn.
It was a winning combination. We’ve already heard a lot about how successful the PLE in San Antonio was. Proof of how well SmackDown did came from the television numbers. The Jan. 27 edition was watched by 2,544,000. That’s the best number to date in 2023, and second only in recent memory to the Dec. 30 show with John Cena. Among 18-49 year olds, the Rumble go home main evented by KO and Solo Sikoa beat that Cena episode, scoring a .67 which was its best number since Christmas Eve 2020 — a show boosted by the overrun from an NFL game.
SmackDown amazingly didn’t win the night outright with those numbers. The show finished in a tie for first with Telemundo “narconovela” El Señor de los Cielos. ABC’s Shark Tank was third with a .59 in the demo.
WWE played it close to the vest with their plans for The Bloodline feud on Raw, so anticipation should be high for this week’s SmackDown. Can it top these numbers?
We’ll know next week. Until then, here’s a rundown of the past ten months or so of the blue show’s numbers:
* 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.
Numbers via Showbuzz Daily
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