With the Royal Rumble right around the corner on February 1, and the first Saturday Night's Main Event of 2025 taking place 24 hours later, the January 24 "WWE SmackDown" was another important step forward on the road to WrestleMania 41. Damian Priest announced himself as the newest member of the "SmackDown" roster, the Motor City Machine Guns notched another victory over Pretty Deadly, and Kevin Owens defeated Jimmy Uso, all while stars like Matthew McConaughey and Shane Gillis sat at ringside.

The excitement surrounding WWE's upcoming events reflected in a small boost when it came to TV ratings, as Programming Insider has confirmed that the January 24 show averaged a total of 1,455,000 viewers, a 4% increase from the previous week, and a miniscule increase of less than 1% on the trailing four-week average that currently stands at 1,451,000 viewers. The key 18-49 demographic also got a boost, as the show earned a 0.44, up 5% on both the January 17 episode and the trailing four-week average, with both of those metrics garnering a 0.42.

The biggest plus point for "SmackDown" this past week was the lack of sporting competition on other networks. With no college football, NBA, or NFL coverage on Friday night, that allowed "SmackDown" to stroll comfortably into the number one spot for the night in both the 18-49 and 25-54 demographics for all prime time telecasts, including network television. For the first time in a long time, "SmackDown" also ranked in the top 10 for total viewers across all prime time telecasts (again including network programming), placing 10th for the night, with the three-hour FOX News block between 8PM and 11PM being the only other cable telecasts to earn more viewers than WWE's blue brand.