Apparently Hogan/Andre's 33 million viewers wasn't even the biggest wrestling audience of the Hulkamania era of global wrestling as Inoki's promoting magic saw him vs Leon Spinks draw 39 million viewers a few months before the WWF's Main Event. When you consider the size of Japan to the US, that's bonkers.
Uh oh.... Big Dave Meltz in the WON at the time says NBC's rating was actually only 26 million and the 33 million number came from early guesstimates. Is nothing sacred!
Ebersol told the press at the time that they would not be doing WWF shows in prime time weekly after this because "It would hurt the live gates"
Meltz of course refutes this and says the ratings wouldn't hold up to network standards.
Dave has to then conflate the ratings into what it would have drawn had it been in the SNME time slot.
After the Main Event, NBC fans had Miami Vice and Unsolved Mysteries to look forward to. Powerful Friday night line up!