AEW Dynamite ratings drop second week unopposed by NXT, but stay well above 1 million and rank no. 2 in key demo

AEW Dynamite, as seemed likely, dropped from last week’s 1.219 million on their first show since NXT moved to Tuesday nights, buoyed by a special Mike Tyson appearance to hook viewers. Last night’s episode (4/21) drew 1.104 million viewers, the sixth best live and same-night viewership total in the show’s history.

In the 18-49 demographic, it drew a 0.37 rating, down from last week’s 0.44 rating, but still well above the prior typical demo ratings in the 0.26-0.30 range. It was good enough to finish no. 2 on cable television for the night in that demo, behind only MTV’s “Challenge: Double Agent” program.

In the male 18-49 demographic, it drew a 0.50 rating, down from last week’s 0.55 but well above the previous range of 0.38 to 0.42.

In the male 18-34 demo, it drew a 0.17, down from last week’s 0.27 rating and barely above the typical prior range of 0.13 to 0.17. That’s a weak demo for NXT, typically, which meant there were fewer in that age group available on Wednesdays now that NXT moved to Tuesdays.

Last week’s 1.219 million grew after three days to 1.375 million. That increase of 156,000 is not too out of line with the prior weeks increases. The previous week it increased 154,000. The week before that, it grew 216,000. The week before that, 166,000. That’s good news for AEW because it means new fans are watching rather than just the same poll of viewers merely time-shifting from delayed viewing to live viewing. That’s a bigger potential customer base for pay-per-views and selling live even tickets and merchandise.

Last week’s viewership increased about 450,000 from the year-to-date average. This week’s viewership is still more than 330,000 above the prior average, so that’s an indication that roughly three out of four people sampling the product live last week who weren’t watching regularly before decided to watch again this week. That could drop more next week or it could settle somewhere between last week’s and this week’s numbers.

This week’s Tuesday NXT telecast on USA, because it was on a new night, went up from last week – from 805,000 last week to 841,000 this week. Their three-day viewership total last week was 936,000. With the increase this week, and the substantial delayed viewership that gets added to same night viewership, NXT could become a show that regularly draws more than a million viewers over seven days of viewing. AEW looks to be a consistent 1 million-plus viewership show counting only the live and same-night viewership.