AEW Dynamite Ratings Special Report: A look at a special metric that accounts for cord cutting, is AEW holding the percentage of viewers it has access to compared to last two years?

This week’s (7/17) AEW Dynamite drew a 0.68 rating in the 18-49 demographic in the Coverage (CVG) category, which represents the percentage of homes with TBS who watched. This rating is helpful when comparing the effectiveness of a show at holding or growing its audience year over year, removing the factor of fewer homes having access to the specific cable network it airs on.

With more and more viewers “cutting the cord” and discontinuing subscriptions to cable services that offer networks like TBS and TNT, a decreasing audience year over year can seem like a show is turning off available viewers or failing to grow when in fact it’s holding up well percentage-wise given the available audience. Younger viewers who enter the 18-49 demo each year are much less likely to subscribe to a cable service than the 49 year old turning 50 who leaves the 18-49 demo, so that factors in also.

So PWTorch obtained a sample of the latest six weeks of Dynamite’s CVG rating to compare to the same six week period the last two years.

This week’s Dynamite in the 18-49 CVG demo is 0.68. One year ago this week, it was 0.75. Two years ago it was 0.65.

The last six weeks of Dynamite in the 18-49 CVG demo is 0.56. One year ago, the same six weeks averaged 0.67. Two years ago, the same six weeks averaged 0.64.

So this year, the average 18-49 CVG rating is down from the previous two years by 0.11 (16 percent) and 0.08 (13 percent). Last year’s six week block coincides with the introduction of Collision (on June 17, 2023), so if Collision had a negative impact on Dynamite, it would have been reflected in both this year’s six week block and last year’s six week block, but not two years ago when Collision wasn’t airing yet.

• 2024: 0.56 (down 16 percent from 2023 and 13 percent from 2022)
• 2023: 0.67
• 2022: 0.64

If we only look at the last four weeks, which would eliminate the year-low rating five weeks ago, the average is 0.60 compared to 0.65 and 0.66 two years ago.

So AEW Dynamite is drawing a smaller percentage of available viewers this year than last year when comparing this week, the last four weeks, and the last six weeks.

The rolling six-week average in the standard 18-49 rating gives the impression of a bigger dropoff year over year, though.

• 2024: 0.22 (down 27 percent from 2023 and 33 percent from 2022)
• 2023: 0.30
• 2022: 0.33

So the CVG rating better reflects whether a show is holding the same percentage of viewers with access to the cable network, while the regular 18-49 rating is more relevant to advertisers who are concerned with how many people in a demo are actually watching a show, not whether it’s drawing more or fewer viewers than prior years.

Speaking of which, Dynamite’s average total viewership in the six-week blocks we’re comparing is as follows:

• 2024: 673,000 (down 22 percent from 2023 and 27 percent from 2022)
• 2023: 863,000
• 2022: 916,000

So the CVG rating dropoff of 16 percent is smaller than the 27 percent regular 18-49 demo dropoff and 22 percent overall viewership dropoff when comparing six week periods this year to last year and the 33 percent 18-49 demo dropoff and 27 percent overall viewership dropoff when comparing six week periods this year to two years ago. So Dynamite viewership is down this year compared to the last two years looking at the latest six week and four week rolling averages, but the CVG rating puts it in better perspective that some of the dropoff most commonly cited is due to a dropoff in cable subscribers in the 18-49 demo.

Now check out this week’s AEW Dynamite Post-show either in podcast audio format or YouTube video format.