TV Ratings News: Viewership Down for AEW Dynamite by Nearly 20% and WWE NXT Down Too
In the second week of the “Wednesday Night Wars” between AEW Dynamite on TNT and WWE NXT on USA Network, it was another win for AEW just like last week, but there were less viewers for both shows. Thanks to Showbuzz Daily for the numbers.
AEW Dynamite did 1.018 million viewers on TNT and also 122,000 on TruTV because WarnerMedia decided to air it on both channels in case the MLB Playoff game went long and there was a brief pre-emption. Last week’s AEW Dynamite debut did 1.4 million viewers. The number in the coveted 18-49 age demo was 0.46 this week after a 0.68 last week.
WWE NXT did 790,000 viewers on USA Network, which is their lowest number since they have been on USA Network. Last week’s NXT did 891,000 viewers.
Both shows were impacted by the Major League Baseball playoffs on TBS, which is owned by WarnerMedia just like TNT and TruTV are. The first baseball game (St. Louis over Atlanta in a blowout) did 3.33 million viewers while the second game (Washington over the LA Dodgers) that started at around 8:30pm, which is 30 minutes after AEW & NXT started, did a big number with 5.68 million viewers.
The drop in viewers was 19% for AEW Dynamite. That was to be expected because there’s always a curiosity about a new TV show no matter if it’s wrestling, a scripted drama, a comedy or reality TV. People are going to tune in to check it out if it’s advertised properly and they may not be back the next week. Obviously, 19% of the people that watched last week didn’t come back this week for the whole show.
There are also full replays of AEW Dynamite including a replay that is right after it is over on TNT, so there are other chances for people to see it. This week’s AEW replay did 363,000 viewers.
The overall audience for the two shows was 1.93 million, which is down from the 2.40 million combined audience last week.
You can check out my AEW Dynamite review right here. I thought it was a great show that was better than last week.
Here is Jim Kress with the WWE NXT review for this week.
TJR Thoughts: I don’t post that much about TV ratings because I still think there’s a flaw in how they discover them, but it’s interesting at least for a few weeks since AEW Dynamite is a new show. I’m also interested in what Smackdown on Fox does this week after 3.8 million viewers last week.
In an average week, I might DVR five or six shows that I don’t get around to watching until days later. I’m sure a lot of wrestling fans are this way with these shows too. I know that there are other numbers that come out about DVR viewing and stuff, but what really gets discussed are these overnight numbers.