WWE SmackDown Viewership Drastically Rises In Return To FOX

Call it a perfect storm if you will. WWE SmackDown returned to its normal FOX home, where it was sure to do better numbers than in its one-week FS1 refuge.

Couple that with the intrigue of what sort of show WWE would put on when most of their workforce was stuck halfway around the globe (or in mid-air, had they been on that last-ditch charter flight bound for Buffalo), and SmackDown found a stronger audience this week.

According to

, the women-and-NXT-heavy edition of SmackDown was good for 2,543,000 viewers. That's a whopping 186 percent increase over the staggeringly-low 888,000 done for the FS1 airing a week ago, and a full 100,000 viewers higher than the October 18 broadcast (2,442,000).

Compared to the other network fare on Friday night, SmackDown still lost to every other primetime show on the big four US networks (except for Fresh Off the Boat on ABC), but at least WWE managed to regain its Friday night network audience after a week on cable.

The first hour did 2,605,000 viewers on average, while the second dipped slightly to 2,481,000.