AEW’s first-time experiment of running Dynamite on a Saturday resulted in the show finishing fifth on cable trailing the NBA and UFC.
Saturday Night Dynamite held up well averaging 755,000 viewers and registering a 0.31 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That compares to 792,000 and a 0.32 rating for their last Wednesday episode that faced head-to-head competition from NXT.
Dynamite went against a big NBA game on ESPN with Houston vs. Oklahoma City doing 1,757,000 viewers and a 0.67 demo rating. The NBA took the top three slots on cable for the day followed by the UFC Fight Night main card at 9 pm that did 869,000 viewers.
AEW only went against the UFC prelims, which aired on ESPN+ as Dynamite had finished by the time the main card aired on ESPN.
AEW did benefit from the NBA lead-in with the Indiana vs. Miami game that did 1,607,000 viewers and a 0.62 rating in the key demo.
The biggest competition for AEW’s viewers was from NXT TakeOver: XXX, which did air head-to-head and it’s unknown how much of an effect that had on the AEW number or vice versa.
In a telling stat, AEW running on an unfamiliar night still topped the unopposed version of NXT from last Wednesday in all the key demos except adults over 50.
The first time AEW ran on a Saturday proved to be effective with young males with the 18-49 audience increasing 16 percent from the Wednesday, August 12th episode. The largest increase was among males 12-34 which were up by 47 percent.
They did drop among young females from last Wednesday with the 18-49 audience down 27 percent and 12-34 down 13 percent.
Interesting, adults over 50 were basically the same with a 4 percent drop. So, that audience found the show on Saturday and while they never beat NXT in that demo, it shows that the ones that do watch are going to find the show regardless.
Last week’s unopposed version of NXT did 853,000 viewers and a 0.24 rating in the 18-48 demo. Those numbers represented increases of 38 and 50 percent respectively from the prior week.
NXT goes unopposed again this week with AEW Dynamite airing on Thursday night due to the NBA playoffs. Next week, AEW will have Wednesday to themselves as NXT is moved to Tuesday night for one-week only on the USA Network.
Here is a breakdown of AEW Saturday Night Dynamite with comparisons to the August 12th edition of the show and NXT’s unopposed figures from last week:
ADULTS 18-49
AEW: 0.31 (-3 percent)
NXT: 0.24
FEMALES 18-49
AEW: 0.19 (-27 percent)
NXT: 0.16
MALES 18-49
AEW: 0.44 (+16 percent)
NXT: 0.32
ADULTS 18-34
AEW: 0.21 (+16.5 percent)
NXT: 0.08
FEMALES 12-34
AEW: 0.13 (-13 percent)
NXT: 0.05
MALES 12-34
AEW: 0.25 (+47 percent)|
NXT: 0.14
ADULTS 25-54
AEW: 0.35 (-10 percent)
NXT: 0.30
ADULTS 50+
AEW: 0.25 (-4 percent)
NXT: 0.42
