The final Wednesday head-to-head battle saw AEW finish ahead in the 18-49 demographic while NXT managed its best number since Halloween Havoc.
AEW Dynamite featured the return of Mike Tyson to the program leading to an average of 688,000 viewers and a 0.28 in the 18-49 demographic finishing fifth for the night on cable. Their viewership was similar to last week with a small drop of 2 percent while the key demographic improved by 7.7 percent.
NXT aired the first night of TakeOver: Stand & Deliver, which was simulcast on Peacock and would hinder their television viewership with the commercial-free alternative. They still managed their best figure since October 28th with Stand & Deliver averaging 768,000 viewers and 0.22 in the 18-49 demographic. Their viewership increased by 17.4 percent and the demo rose 5 percent from last week. The show featured a five-minute overrun for the main event between Io Shirai and Raquel Gonzalez.
NXT beat AEW slightly among females 18-49 and by a sizable margin with adults over the age of 50.
The major difference appeared to be older viewers. AEW decreased by 17 percent with adults over 50, while NXT increased by 19 percent in that demographic leading to NXT averaging more viewers overall.
Besides 50+, AEW was not hurt among any of its demos going against TakeOver as the other seven categories monitored by Showbuzz Daily saw increases or remained flat with last week’s episode. Males 12-34 grew by 36 percent this week on Dynamite and its 18-34 demo improved by 25 percent.
NXT was up 19 percent with women 18-49 and its 50+ audience but the 18-34 demo took a big hit falling by 23 percent to a 0.10.
In Canada, TakeOver was simulcast on both Sportsnet 360 and the WWE Network while AEW Dynamite aired exclusively on TSN 2. Neither show cracked the top ten sports broadcasts on Wednesday finishing below 103,500 viewers.
Next week sees NXT move to Tuesday nights permanently with AEW retaining Wednesday nights unopposed by wrestling competition.
ONE Championship’s card that aired on TNT right after Dynamite averaged 196,000 viewers and a 0.08 in the 18-49 demographic finishing 88th for the day on cable. They will continue in the same timeslot for the next three weeks following AEW Dynamite.
Here is a breakdown of the final Wednesday head-to-head figures:
ADULTS 18-49
AEW: 0.28 (+7.7 percent)
NXT: 0.22 (+5 percent)
FEMALES 18-49
AEW: 0.18 (+20 percent)
NXT: 0.19 (+19 percnet)
MALES 18-49
AEW: 0.38 (Even)
NXT: 0.24 (-4 percent)
ADULTS 18-34
AEW: 0.15 (+25 percent)
NXT: 0.10 (-23 percent)
FEMALES 12-34
AEW: 0.11 (+22 percent)
NXT: 0.07 (Even)
MALES 12-34
AEW: 0.15 (+36 percent)
NXT: 0.14 (+8 percent)
ADULTS 25-54
AEW: 0.33 (+6.5 percent)
NXT: 0.26 (+18 percent)
ADULTS 50+
AEW: 0.24 (-17 percent)
NXT: 0.38 (+19 percent)
