AEW Dynamite ratings and viewership, assessing impact of timeslot shifts, ranking in cable, key demo info, more

AEW Dynamite last night drew 883,000 live and same night viewers, above the 821,000 they drew the last time they aired on Wednesday night back on May 19. That’s the good news. The bad news for AEW is that was the lowest viewership since NXT moved to Tuesday nights, and that the average the prior four weeks was over 1 million. So this number could be a starting point to get back to that 1 million-plus viewership number after being out of their timeslot for over a month, or it could mean that last number on May 19 and last night’s number is the current water level, not the 1 million average before that.

In the 18-49 demographic they drew a 0.35 rating, which is right in line with the 0.36 average on Wednesday nights since NXT moved to Tuesdays. The range has been 0.28 on May 19 and 0.44 on Apr. 14, so it’s right in thae middle. That was good for a no. 2 position on all of cable last night, behind only the NBA on ESPN.

Among 18-49 males, it drew a 0.45, a little below the 0.48 average the prior six weeks on Wednesday nights. Among 18-34 males, it drew a 0.22 rating, tied with the prior six Wednesday night airings.

The actual cable rating was 0.60, below the 0.69 average in the prior six Wednesday night airings and the lowest Wednesday rating since NXT moved to Tuesdays.

Looking at the latest 7-day numbers we have received, AEW averaged 833,000 viewers in the first four weeks it was preempted from Wednesdays (we don’t have last Saturday night’s data yet for that obviously, as it hasn’t been seven days). The last four Wednesdays before the five weeks of being preempted from their normal timeslot drew a 7-day total average of 1.15 million. So that equates to losing 317,000 viewers or 28 percent during the five week stretch they were preempted.

Comparing that live and same night viewership dropoff, AEW averaged 506,000 for the four episodes from May 28 to June 18. The prior four week stretch on Wednesdays averaged 821,000 viewers. That’s a drop of 315,000 viewers. So the viewership AEW lost on the first night’s viewing ultimately wasn’t made up for in people catching up later. The number who watched on delay remained largely unchanged, and only live and same night viewership took a hit. That’s a bit unexpected, as you’d expect people who couldn’t watch on the new timeslots to catch up, but those people might not be people who use DVRs much or even have that service.