AEW regained the viewership edge over NXT ending a two-week advantage for the latter. AEW continued its command of the 18-49 demographic with a 0.25.
AEW Dynamite increased 7% with 731,000 and finishing 24th for the night among cable programming. NXT fell 4% to 665,000 viewers and did a 0.18 placing them 50th on the night. The winner of the night was MTV’s Challenge: Total Madness that did 0.58.
It was the first time since March 11th that NXT was among the top fifty programs and allowed for a more detailed breakdown.
On paper, AEW’s strongest hook was the tease of Dustin Rhodes retiring if he lost to Kip Sabian that they pushed hard in the days leading up. The show also featured a rematch between Sammy Guevera and Darby Allin that was also part of the TNT Championship tournament.
NXT advertised a match between Finn Balor and Velveteen Dream, which they didn’t deliver and switched the main event. Online, the most pushed story was Drake Maverick returning to the Cruiserweight tournament to fight for his job after legitimately being released last week.
AEW was up 33% with females 18-49 but fell with men in the same age group by 11%. The 12-34 female demo was up 22%, so something clicked with their female audience on Wednesday. Men 12-34 and adults 18-34 were down double digits.
AEW won most of the key demos except for adults over 50, where NXT beat them 0.34 to 0.30 and has always been a strong demo for NXT. The two sides were equal at 0.11 among women 12-34.
AEW is advertising a relatively big show next week with the semi-finals of the TNT Championship tournament as Cody takes on Darby Allin and Lance Archer faces Dustin Rhodes. Plus, Best Friends vs. Jimmy Havoc & Kip Sabian in a No DQ, No Countout Match, Brodie Lee vs. Marko Stunt, and an appearance by Jon Moxley.
NXT will feature a match between Charlotte Flair and Mia Yim next week.
Here is a breakdown of both shows, we don’t have a comparison for NXT’s performance in the demos from last week because of where they charted:
ADULTS 18-49
AEW: 0.25 (Even)
NXT: 0.18
FEMALES 18-49
AEW: 0.20 (+33%)
NXT: 0.15
MALES 18-49
AEW: 0.31 (-11%)
NXT: 0.22
ADULTS 18-34
AEW: 0.13 (-13%)
NXT: 0.10
FEMALES 12-34
AEW: 0.11 (+22%)
NXT: 0.11
MALES 12-34
AEW: 0.14 (-18%)
NXT: 0.06
ADULTS 25-54
AEW: 0.29 (-3%)
NXT: 0.21
ADULTS 50+
AEW: 0.30 (+7%)
NXT: 0.34
