NXT Ratings Report: A top ten finish in key demo despite airing on a new night, how many viewers it pulled from Impact on AXS, key metrics on viewership gain since Dynamite moved nights

Last night’s NXT on USA rating, a special Tuesday edition headlined with the Four-Way Iron Man match for the vacated Impact Wrestling Title drew 849,000 viewers, in line with the unopposed Wednesday viewership of 853,000 two weeks ago, and above last week’s unopposed viewership of 824,000.

The viewership (live and same-night-delayed) the last three weeks is 842,000. The prior three weeks head-to-head with AEW Dynamite was 693,000. That’s a gain of 149,000 viewers.

Interestingly, they achieved a similar gain over seven days, as the Aug. 19 episode drew 978,000 total viewers are seven days, an increase of 148,000 over the prior three week average.

AEW viewership, by comparison is down, although the first two weeks it changed its timeslot, whereas NXT was in its usual place on Wednesday nights. Last night’s NXT rating is a victory for NXT because moving to a new night, a dropoff would have been understandable, if not expected, especially since it was still going against another first-run wrestling show on AXS TV – Impact Wrestling. The title situation with Karion Kross vacating the title might have helped them come up with a major match that helped pop a big rating this week.

Impact Wrestling took a big hit, drawing 102,000 last night, down from the typical rating lately. The prior eight weeks averaged 155,000 viewers. Last week drew a 171,000 rating, the second biggest number since Slammiversary remade the roster. The low since them was 134,000 four weeks ago.

In the demo ratings, NXT has come on strong with an increase in the male 18-34 demo, drawing a 0.14 this week and a 0.18 last week, above the 0.11 it drew the prior five weeks in a row. In the 18-49 demo, it drew a 0.26 rating this week, up from the 0.24 rating last week. That was good for a top ten finish for NXT in the overall Tuesday cable rankings (no. 10 overall), behind an NBA playoff game that finished no. 1 with a 0.99 demo rating, and behind two  NHL playoff games along with some reality series and news shows. It’s among NXT’s highest finishes yet. Perhaps a case is being made for NXT moving to Tuesday nights permanently, although some of this young male demo gain might carry over to Wednesday nights if the head-to-head with AEW resumes later this month.

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