SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last Saturday’s (7/8) episode of AEW Collision, headlined by Samoa Joe vs. C.M. Punk, drew an average of 570,000 viewers and a 0.21 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The prior week’s pre-taped episode airing over the Fourth of July weekend drew 452,000 viewers. The week before drew 595,000 viewers, which was down from the prior week’s premiere episode of 816,000.
The key demo rating of 0.21 was back to the level from two weeks ago of 0.21, and above the 0.13 the prior week, but below the 0.33 of the premiere episode.
Collision ranked no. 5 among all cable shows in the 18-49 demo. Collision drew 279,000 viewers in that demo compared to 414,000 for UFC’s preliminary fight card on ESPN. If Collision is landing in the top five on a tough night to attract cable TV viewers, indications are that WarnerMedia execs and Tony Khan will be pleased.
Having their top paid star in C.M. Punk featured exclusively on a show that is drawing fewer than 600,000 viewers compared to 800,000-900,000 viewers for Dynamite is not idea, though. AEW’s revenue comes from live ticket sales and PPV, not just TV rights fees, and that’s a sizable percentage of AEW viewers each week who aren’t exposed to the key PPV storyline that Punk is involved in, among the other Collision-exclusive wrestlers.
Did you know that PWTorch VIP membership gives you access to an ad-free version of this website (mobile and desktop versions), an unmatched 35 year library of insider wrestling content in newsletter article and podcast formats, dozens of new VIP-exclusive podcasts throughout the month (that are easily compatible with Apple Podcasts App, Apple Car Play, and many other popular podcast apps), and more benefits. Check out details and sign up HERE.
That said, if that audience is big enough to earn enough TV rights fees to make up for Punk’s salary and the potential loss of PPV buys because key feuds building to the PPV aren’t being seen by roughly 25 percent of AEW’s audience, it’s still a net gain at least among those metrics. If Collision also pulls down Rampage’s viewership and perhaps even Dynamite’s due to AEW fans picking and choosing which shows they watch rather than always watching Dynamite, that’s an offsetting downside to the benefits of Collision otherwise.
Viewership in Q1 opened at 556,000 viewers, grew to 602,000 for Q5 (the start of hour two), and peaked 625,000 viewers for the Joe vs. Punk main event. It’s more common for a wrestling show to lose viewers as it progresses, but this episode of Collision ended higher than it began. Credit for that goes to the drawing power of Punk-Joe and the job AEW did building to it, plus having a strong enough show leading up to it that viewers hung around.
7-DAY VIEWERSHIP UPDATE
The 7-day viewership totals for the first two weeks of Collision are in. PWTorch’s industry source relays to us that the first episode of Collision topped out at 952,000 total viewers after delayed viewership over the course of a week and the second episode landed ta 719,000 viewers (up from the 595,000.) That’s 20 percent growth. That week’s Dynamite (6/21) drew 1.012 million viewers after seven days, up from 902,000. That’s an increase of 12 percent. So Collision, based on a very small sample size, might draw more delayed viewers over the course of a week because of the Saturday night timeslot being less convenient for some viewers to watch live, and that closes the gap between the two shows somewhat.
[If you’re using this information for a story at another website, please direct link to this report.]
OR CHECK OUT THIS STORY AT PROWRESTLING.NET: Rob Van Dam recalls getting physical with Taz during a backstage incident
Subscribe to Wade Keller’s free podcasts by searching “Wade Keller” in your podcast app. They include a weekly flagship episode (blue-logo show) and the post-shows after Raw, Dynamite, Smackdown, and Rampage (red logo show) with a mix of best-of episodes too!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.