AEW Dynamite Ratings Report: Big rebound in viewership without NBA competition leads to no. 1 finish on cable in key demo, year-over-year comparison

AEW Dynamite on Wednesday night (1/22) averaged 1,028 million viewers, a huge turnaround from four straight weeks of decreasing viewership including 824,000 last week.

In the core 18-49 demographic, Dynamite rebounded to a 0.35 rating from a 0.27 last week. The last time a show drew a 0.35 was Sept. 21. This week’s Dynamite was the no. 1 show on cable that night in that demographic.

Through the first weight weeks of this year, the 18-49 demo rating has averaged 0.31. Last year through eight weeks, it averaged 0.39. All but one of those first eight episode of Dynamite last year drew 0.35 or better.

In total viewership, AEW has averaged 932,000 this year compared to 1,009,000 last year. Two years ago, the first eight week average was 790,000 (during the pandemic). The year before that (2020), the first eight weeks averaged 900,000.

Among the possible reasons for the viewership surge this week, considering it wasn’t an especially loaded show compared the prior seven weeks this year, are:

• The fact that ESPN didn’t air NBA games due to the All-Star break on Wednesday night for the first time all year. (Last week’s NBA game on ESPN drew a 0.37 demo rating and 1,038 million viewers.)
• The conclusion last week of MTV’s The Challenge. (This week’s MTV The Challenge reunion episode drew a 0.9 demo rating, down from 0.33 last week. That drop of 0.15 from last week’s and this week’s competition on MTV could explain much of the jump in Dynamite from 0.27 to 0.35 this week.)
• Cross-promotion with TNT during NBA All-Star weekend.
• The Tony Khan “big announcement” teaser.

Next week will be a bigger indicator of the state of AEW viewership with the NBA returning to it’s regular season Wednesday night schedule on ESPN.