AEW Dynamite Facing Strong Competition In January 2024

AEW Dynamite looks set to go head-to-head with the NBA.

As reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, ABC will air live basketball throughout the entire month of January on Wednesday nights at the same time that Dynamite airs on TBS.

Historically, live sports are the most watched programmes in the USA each week in overall viewership and the all-important key demographic rating. WWE knows this all too well as Raw ratings suffer when the NFL season is underway and viewership rises in the off-season.

It is likely that ABC purchased the rights to live NBA games during the ongoing writers’ strike back in the summer. With no new shows and networks desperate for content, sports games that were not going to air on cable were picked up by the biggest networks to drive viewers.

Unfortunately for AEW Collision, ratings have taken a nosedive following stiff competition from other live programming on Saturday nights. Despite the newest show starting out strong in June, viewership began to suffer when the college football season was underway and was hit harder when WWE and UFC ran their respective programming on the same night.

Live Sports Bumps AEW Off Their Regular Timeslot

With TBS having the rights to the MLB Playoffs on October 11, Dynamite was forced to move to Tuesday night. The move has caught the attention of wrestling fans as this will mean that the flagship show and NXT will go head-to-head for one week only on October 10th. Both promotions have also loaded their cards strong for that night in an attempt to draw as many viewers as possible to their respective products.