NXT vs. AEW Ratings Update: Mob storming Capital takes a big dent out of anticipated audience last week, new 7-day totals for December

Last week, NXT and AEW were anticipating larger-than-usual viewership coming out of the holiday weekend. Each had a New Year’s theme – NXT New Year’s Evil and AEW New Year’s Smash. The mob storming the capital and killing a Capitol police officer while chanting about wanting to hang Vice President Pence, among other things, led to a viewership shift to the news channels. In fact, the top 32 cable shows in the 18-49 demographic were all on CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News. So both pro wrestling programs drew lower than expected numbers.

AEW viewership dropped from 997,000 the prior week to 662,000. The ten-week rolling average was 829,000 coming into last week.

NXT drew a mere 641,000 down, below AEW’s total, although not as far off their ten-week rolling average of 684,000.

In the 18-49 demo, AEW finished no. 48 overall for the night; NXT finished no. 68.

In overall rating, NXT drew a 0.50 rating and AEW drew a 0.49 rating.

Other Notes:

•AEW drew more than 1 million viewers three straight weeks – Dec. 2, 9, and 16 – for an average of 1.121 million. We don’t have data yet for more recent weeks.

•NXT’s seven-day viewership totals the first three weeks of December averaged 807,000. That does not include WWE Network viewership of the NXT replay that becomes available 24 hours after the show airs live on USA Network.