SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
AEW Dynamite’s Wednesday night (12/16) viewership (live and delayed) dropped from 995,000 to 806,000, more in line with typical viewership numbers this fall. Compared to last week’s peak, sparked by the Kenny Omega AEW Title win and angle involving Don Callis and Impact Wrestling plus the advertised appearance of Sting, viewership was down 194,000.
NXT, meanwhile, increased to 766,000, up from 659,000 last week. NXT’s average since Sept. 16 has been 680,000. AEW’s average since Sept. 16, excluding the last two weeks, was 797,000. So this week’s 806,000 is barely above the 11 weeks leading into the Jon Moxley vs. Omega match and Sting surprise two weeks ago.
AEW produced a rudimentary line-up and didn’t build up to it or frame it as a special episode, although it did feature matches with Chris Jericho, MJF, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, and Cody, arguably six of their top eight stars (Darby Allin and Jon Moxley being the other two in the subjective top eight singles wrestlers).
NXT’s rating was 0.58 compared to AEW’s rating of 0.53. A higher available percentage of homes on average were watching NXT this week but AEW had more viewership check out the show overall, a quirk in how the two data points are tallied. NXT’s strength, as usual, was in the 50-plus age group.
AEW dropped to 0.43 for the male 18-49 demographic, down from 0.57 and 0.56 the prior two weeks, although in between the 0.37 and 0.46 the two weeks before that. (Raw on Monday drew a 0.46 in that demo.)
NXT in the same 18-49 male demo grew to a 0.25, up from 0.22 and 0.19 the last two weeks, but below the 0.26 the week before that.
Among men 18-34, AEW dropped from 0.30 last week to 0.15 this week, the lowest in a while None of the prior four weeks dropped below 0.20. (Raw on Monday drew a 0.20 in that demo.)
NXT in the same male 18-34 demo drew 0.08, down from last week’s 0.11 and above the prior week’s 0.04
In the adult 18-49 demo (men and women) that gets charted and referenced most often, AEW dropped to 0.32, down from 0.49 and 0.48 the prior two weeks, and inline with the 0.39 and 0.43 the two weeks before that. (Raw on Monday in that demo drew a 0.46 in that demo.)
Because there was no major sports competition and it’s past the election season, that number was good enough to finish no. 3 overall in Wednesday cable ratings. NXT finished no. 34 with a 0.19 rating in that demo, which was above their 0.17 and 0.16 of the prior two weeks, but below the 0.20 the week before that.
Overall, this was likely a disappointing number for AEW, although the three-day viewership total will probably shrink the gap with last week’s show considerably. Also, NXT benefited from adding AEW in their overrun after Dynamite ended, and thus it shrunk what would have been a bigger gap in total viewers between the two shows.
One year ago this week, NXT beat AEW in total viewership, 795,000 to 683,000.
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What no mention of Ripley/Storm having more total viewers than Omega’s first match as champ?
First “good” ratings news for WWE in MONTHS and here come the “than Omega’s first match as champ” people. WWE’s product is the worst it has ever been, even worse than in 1995. But you guys just keep on watching and propping them up.
What did I say that was wrong?