WWE SmackDown finishes second to softball despite ratings surge

WWE’s been in a mini-slump on Friday nights during the month of May, but they looked to change their fortunes on June 6 with a loaded Money in the Bank go home edition of SmackDown.

Per Programming Insider, last week’s SmackDown was watched by 1,424,000 and did a .42 rating among 18-49 year olds. Both numbers are up. The overall audience was only up about 3% week-to-week, but the show was up a whopping 23.5% in the demo. That’s the best rating SmackDown’s had since April 25’s WrestleMania fallout episode.

Last Friday wasn’t without competition from live sports. And the night’s main offering did beat WWE to take first place on the night. ESPN’s coverage of Texas’ NCAA Softball World Series-clinching win over Texas Tech took those honors with a .47 rating from 2.4 million viewers. SmackDown was second on all of television among 18-49 year olds… with the caveat that Programming Insider’s report is missing Game 2 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final on TNT; likely because that Double-Overtime classic ran past midnight on the East Coast.

The NBA Finals will be competition this week, as Indiana/Oklahoma City Game 4 airs opposite SmackDown. When we find out how the Money in the Bank fallout episode did, we’ll tell you about it — and update our running tally of the past year’s worth of the show’s results:

* Moved from FOX to USA Network (broadcast to cable)
** Added a third hour

For complete results from the latest SmackDown, our live blog is here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here.