AEW viewership dropped this week following last week's highly anticipated Blood & Guts match.
The two-hour broadcast on TNT this week pulled in 936,000 viewers, which is down from 1.090 million last week, according to PWTorch.
The episode scored a 0.66 cable rating, which is also down from 0.72 last week, and delivered a 0.38 demographic rating in the 18-49 category, down from 0.42 the week previous.
EW star Chris Jericho fired back at WWE NXT founder Triple H on Tuesday regarding the Wednesday night ratings battle between AEW and NXT.
During a recent appearance on Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg, Triple H referred to the rivalry between AEW and NXT as an "imaginary war" on Wednesday nights:
"The promotional opportunity for us is much better on a Tuesday. And also then not having to have a narrative where it's just constantly about an imaginary war, or this imaginary battle. And, you know, people can say what they want, but the truth of the matter is you compete against everything. If you are creating a television product or content—that is the world we live in is content not television, not internet. It's everything. So you're constantly competing for eyeballs and time against everything under the sun, including sleep and time to do other things, and video games, and TikTok and everything else that's out there."
In an interview with Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, Jericho suggested Triple H created the "imaginary war" narrative only because AEW had higher ratings the vast majority of the time:
"It will be there for the rest of time, it was an 'imaginary war,' and if it wasn't a war why did they take Wednesday night the exact same time that we had? It was there to take away our ratings and for us not to get re-signed. Three months after that started we were re-signed to a hundreds-of millions-of-dollars extension. They failed."
After more than a year of AEW and NXT going head-to-head on Wednesday nights, NXT moved to Tuesdays on April 13, marking the end of the Wednesday night wrestling war regardless of whether it was real or imagined.
Jericho added:
"That's typical WWE. It's typical rhetoric. Because I believe that they congratulated us the first week and said, if you remember, 'It's a marathon, not a sprint.' We won the marathon, right? So now it's an imaginary war. Well then why were they saying it's a marathon, not a sprint a year-and-a-half ago when our first rating came out?"
WWE NXT suffered a decline in viewership last week, but the show somewhat bounced back on May 4.
According to ShowbuzzDaily, the viewership climbed up to 761,000 this week, a slight increase from last week’s 744,000.
As for the 18-49 demographic, WWE NXT drew a 0.18 rating, a notable drop compared to last week’s number of 0.22. Overall, the show ranked 21st among the top 150 original programs on cable.
The May 4 episode included an NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship Match, a Falls Count Anywhere Match between Leon Ruff and Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, and the return of Finn Balor.
NXT VIEWERSHIP YEAR-TO-DATE RANKINGS
Apr. 20: 841,000 – 2021 High
Jan. 14: 551,000 – 2021 Low
May 5: 761,000 – This Week
Sunday’s second episode of WWE Most Wanted Treasures drew 769,000 viewers on A&E at 10pm. The one-hour show drew a 0.27 rating like the Biography on Piper, tying for the #10 spot on the Cable Top 150.
This is up from last week’s Most Wanted Treasures premiere, which drew 766,000 viewers. Last Sunday’s premiere drew a 0.29 rating in the key demo, ranking #11 on the Cable Top 150.
The competition between NXT and AEW Dynamite, dubbed the "Wednesday Night Wars," officially ended earlier this month when NXT moved to Tuesday. Both shows have benefited since then, with NXT's audience breaking 800,000 for the past two weeks while Dynamite brought in its second-biggest audience in the show's history by surpassing 1.2 million. Triple H was a guest on the Cheap Heat Podcast this week and discussed NXT's move to Tuesday, referring to their ratings battle with All Elite Wrestling as an "imaginary war."
"The promotional opportunity for us is much better on a Tuesday and also then not having to have a narrative where it's just constantly about an imaginary war or this imaginary battle," Triple H said (h/t Wrestling Inc.). "People can say what they want, but the truth of the matter is you compete against everything. If you are creating a television product or content and that is the world we live in is content not television, not internet. It's everything. You're constantly competing for eyeballs and time against everything under the sun, including sleep and time to do other things, and video games, and Tik Tok and everything else that's out there.
"So having your own space where you don't have to then have an added imaginary battle stacked up against it, it's kind of nice. The bigger fact is having a lead in from a Tuesday into a Wednesday. When we first started, NXT was on Wednesday's for viewers of The Network. The transition to USA and wanting to keep that consistency for those that were watching on The Network so they would know where to find it and not have confusion of SmackDown leaving Tuesday's and people joining in and finding something else. Time has gone by now, and this is a great opportunity for us to have that lead in for Monday Night Raw, get that promotional window for Monday Night RAW, get to Tuesday's and continue to deliver the product."
"Again, I'm thrilled with it, and I think the opportunity is the same as it was before, which is for talent to get out there live and show everything that they can do, and I'm a big believer that talent will shine through, and they'll get that opportunity and you'll make bigger and bigger stars as time goes by. It's about making stars and them having that opportunity not just the number every single week."
Tuesday’s live post-Takeover edition of WWE NXT on the USA Network drew 805,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.
It should be noted that this was the first NXT episode to air on Tuesday nights, with no head-to-head competition from AEW Dynamite. This show featured fallout from last week’s two-night “Takeover: Stand and Deliver” event.
This viewership is up 4.82% from last week’s show, which drew 768,000 viewers for the Takeover Night One episode that also aired on Peacock/WWE Network with no commercials, and up against AEW Dynamite.
NXT tied for #8 on the Cable Top 150 this week with a 0.22 rating in the 18-49 key demographic. This is in line with last week’s final Wednesday show, which ranked #11 with a 0.22 rating in the key demo.
This week’s NXT show ranked #60 in viewership, tying with Assembly Required and the 9am airing of CNN Newsroom. This is down from last week’s #59 ranking.
This is NXT’s biggest audience since October 28, which was the Halloween Havoc show that drew 876,000 viewers with a 0.25 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This week’s show tied with last week’s show for NXT’s biggest key demo rating since Halloween Havoc.
This week’s NXT viewership was up 16% from the same week in 2020, while this week’s key demo rating was up 29.4% from the same week in 2020.
The numbers are in for this week's Wednesday Night War.
According to a new report from Lucha Libre Online, WWE RAW’s average viewership in India for the month of Jan. 2021 exceeded 4 million viewers, more than doubling the 1.85 million viewers in the U.S. during the same timeframe.
The report added that while WWE SmackDown averaged 3 million viewers in India, WWE NXT surpassed the 1 million mark in the country for the month of Jan. 2021.
Furthermore, while South Africa averaged in excess of 1 million viewers for both RAW and SmackDown, Canada averaged 300,000 viewers for both shows during the same month.
Meanwhile, Germany and Italy averaged approximately 300,000 viewers for both RAW and SmackDown.
Therefore, only in India, South Africa, Italy, Canada, and Germany, RAW obtained average viewership of approximately 5.9 million viewers in Jan. 2021. SmackDown for its part averaged around 5.2 million viewers in India, South Africa, Italy, Canada, Germany, and South Korea during the first month of 2021.
These numbers do not include the viewership in the United States, Latin America, United Kingdom, Japan, China and many other countries that broadcast weekly WWE programming live on various TV networks.
Week 72 of the Wednesday Night War saw AEW Dynamite defeat WWE NXT in viewership and ratings.
Wednesday’s live edition of Dynamite drew 831,000 viewers (+11% from last week) on TNT, topping the 734,000 viewers (+3%) garnered by the live NXT show on the USA Network by 13%, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.
AEW ranked #5 in the Cable Top 150, while NXT ranked #24. AEW ranked #60 in viewership, while NXT ranked #66 in viewership.
Last week’s Dynamite show drew 747,000 viewers and ranked #4 on the Cable Top 150, and #69 in viewership. Last week’s NXT show drew 713,000 viewers and ranked #39 on the Cable Top 150, and #70 in viewership.
AEW drew a 0.35 rating in the 18-49 demographic (+13%) while NXT drew a 0.18 in the same demo (+13%) this week. Last week’s AEW show drew a 0.31 rating while the NXT episode drew a 0.16 in that demographic.
NXT drew their best audience of the year this week, and their best key demo rating of 2021. This week’s NXT viewership was up 2.95% from last week, while the key demo rating was up 2%. NXT viewership for this week was down 7.56% from the same week in 2020, and the key demo rating was down 7% from the same week last year.
Monday's TLC go-home edition of RAW drew an average of 1.527 million viewers, down 12% from last week's 1.737 million viewers. Monday's show drew a new all-time low in total viewership, a new all-time low in viewership for each hour, and a new all-time low in the key demographic. Furthermore, last week's AEW Dynamite episode drew a 0.45 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, which beat every hour of this week's RAW in that same demo. You can read our full report on this week's RAW numbers at this link. In an update, WWE officials aren't the only ones who had a big reaction to this week's record-low numbers as there was a similar reaction at the USA Network, according to Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT. It was noted that USA Network management is furious with the drop in ratings, and they want more dark and violent content. "USA Network are furious. They want more adult content. Not sexy adult, but dark and violent adult," the source said. It was also said that WWE officials are hoping that the 2021 Royal Rumble pay-per-view can serve as some kind of a "big reset" for the company. This new report comes after it was reported earlier this week, via Wrestling Observer Radio, that the low numbers were a wake-up call for WWE. Dave Meltzer noted that everyone he knows in WWE were stunned at the numbers, and that people in WWE "got the message" as well. It was also reported this week, via @Wrestlevotes, that the record low numbers for Monday's RAW were not "sitting well" with WWE higher-ups. People in the company expected some "reactionary decisions" to be made, but no other details were provided. It will be interesting to see what WWE does to bring the numbers up, and if anything major happens at the TLC pay-per-view on Sunday. It will also be interesting to see if USA officials recommend any kind of major "reset" storylines as they have in the past.
Week 62 of the Wednesday Night War saw AEW Dynamite defeat WWE NXT in viewership and ratings. Wednesday's live episode of Dynamite drew 806,000 viewers on TNT, topping the 766,000 garnered by last night's live NXT on the USA Network by 5.2%, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily. AEW ranked #3 in the Cable Top 150, while NXT ranked #34. AEW tied for #62 in viewership, with CNN's New Day at 7am, while NXT ranked #67 in viewership. Last week's Dynamite show drew 995,000 viewers and ranked #2 in the Cable Top 150, and #55 in viewership. Last week's post-WarGames edition of NXT drew 659,000 viewers and ranked #37 in the Cable Top 150, and #75 in viewership. AEW drew a 0.32 rating in the 18-49 demographic, beating the 0.19 scored by NXT in the same demo this week by 68%. Last week's AEW show drew a 0.45 rating while the NXT episode drew a 0.17 in that demographic. This week's AEW show was down 19% in total viewers from last week, but on the higher end of what the show was doing before the past two loaded episodes aired. AEW was down 29% in the 18-49 demographic rating this week, but again, it was on the higher end of what Dynamite was drawing before the past two loaded shows aired. This week's AEW show was up 18% from the same week in 2019, but that same week last year, the December 18 show, was their worst number of 2019 - 683,000 viewers with a 0.25 rating in the key demo. This week's NXT show drew the best number of total viewers since Halloween Havoc, which drew 876,000 viewers on October 28. NXT's 18-49 demographic rating for this week was the second-best since Halloween Havoc, behind the November 25 show that drew a 0.20 rating. This week's NXT was down 3.7% from the same week in 2019. The Challenge on MTV at 8pm topped the night in the 18-49 demographic on the Cable Top 150, with a 0.45 rating, but drawing just 839,000 viewers. Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC topped the night on cable in viewership with 3.593 million viewers, ranking #11 on the Cable Top 150 with a 0.26 rating in the key 18-49 demo.
Week 59 of the Wednesday Night War saw WWE NXT defeat AEW Dynamite in viewership, but not the ratings in the key demographic. The numbers are just now being released due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Wednesday's NXT averaged 712,000 viewers on the USA Network, edging out the 710,000 viewers garnered by AEW Dynamite by just 0.3%, according to Showbuzz Daily. AEW ranked #7 in the Cable Top 150 for the 18-49 demo, while NXT ranked #25. AEW ranked #64 in total viewership, while NXT ranked #63 in viewership. Last week's Dynamite show drew 850,000 viewers (-16% from last week) and ranked #7 in the Cable Top 150, and #60 in viewership. Last week's NXT episode drew 638,000 viewers (+11.6%) and ranked #56 in the Cable Top 150, and #74 in viewership. AEW drew a 0.26 rating in the 18-49 demographic (-30%) while NXT drew a 0.20 (+43%) in the same demo this week. Last week's AEW show drew a 0.37 rating while the NXT episode drew a 0.14 in that demographic. This was the second-best NXT viewership and 18-49 demographic rating since October, besides the Halloween Havoc special, which drew 876,000 viewers and a 0.25 rating in the key demo. NXT viewership was down 12% from the 2019 Thanksgiving Week episode.
