The July 25, 2025 edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a significant increase in viewership, delivering 1.707 million viewers on the USA Network, marking the show’s highest audience since April 18, 2025.
The broadcast was dedicated to the memory of the legendary Hulk Hogan, who passed away last week at the age of 71. WWE honored the Hall of Famer with a ten-bell salute, a powerful video tribute, and an emotional speech from Paul “Triple H” Levesque to open the show. The memorial segment resonated deeply with fans and likely contributed to the ratings spike.
SmackDown ranked as the #1 show on all of television in the coveted 18-49 and 25-54 age demographics. The broadcast posted a 0.48 rating in adults 18-49 and a 0.63 in adults 25-54, leading the night across all networks.
The program also scored particularly well among male viewers, with a 0.67 rating in men 18-49 and a 0.91 in men 25-54, showcasing WWE’s continued dominance in male-skewing audiences.
Strong Numbers
While SmackDown ranked ninth in total viewership for the night, it easily outpaced its direct competition in the same 8-10 p.m. timeslot. Reruns of ABC’s Celebrity Jeopardy! (0.28 demo) and NBC’s Dateline Classic (0.19 demo) were far behind in key demo performance.
With SummerSlam 2025 just days away and the continued emotional tributes to Hulk Hogan, WWE heads into the weekend with serious momentum. Stay tuned to PWMania.com for full coverage of this week’s Raw, SummerSlam weekend, and all post-Hogan tribute developments.
