The New Year’s Evil edition of NXT 2.0 was the most-watched episode since Halloween Havoc but fell in the key demographic.
Tuesday’s special averaged 685,000 viewers and approximately 206,000 (0.16) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
It was the highest overall viewership since October 26th for Halloween Havoc, which went against the World Series and the NBA. This week’s competition came from college football and college basketball.
The demo was down slightly from last week’s 211,000 but beat every other week since Halloween Havoc in 18-49.
This was an episode that was propped up by female viewership and a rise in its 50+ demo. Females 18-49 grew from 59,000 to 81,000, females 18-34 went from 28,000 to 42,000, and females 35-49 jumped from 31,000 to 38,000.
The male audiences fell with 18-49s down 18 percent this week and males 35-49 dropped by 23 percent, per data from Brandon Thurston.
The Kentucky vs. LSU basketball game ran until 9:16 p.m. ET and finished #2 on cable with 0.46 in 18-49 and 1,484,000 viewers on ESPN. That game was immediately followed by the LSU vs. Kansas State football game against the last 52 minutes of NXT and was #1 on cable with 0.69 in the demo and 2,364,000 viewers.
NXT finished #24 among cable and had an eight-minute overrun featuring Bron Breakker’s championship win against Tommaso Ciampa. The show also featured Raw tag team champion Riddle teaming with MSK against Imperium, and an appearance by AJ Styles.
In Canada, NXT averaged 59,000 viewers on Sportsnet 360. It was slightly above the December average of 52,000 that the show had been doing over the previous four weeks.
