While it was expected that NXT 2.0 would be hurt moving networks and going against the Olympics, the drop was significantly larger than Raw experienced.
The February 8th edition of the show on Syfy fell to an average viewership of 400,000 viewers and approximately 97,000 (0.07) in the 18-49 demographic, courtesy of Brandon Thurston of Wrestenomics.
These are easily the lowest NXT numbers since they moved to television, but that was expected and dropped 35 percent in viewers and 43 percent in the 18-49 demo from last week’s figures.
This week’s episode of Raw on Syfy saw viewership drop by 19 percent and its 18-49 audience declined by 18.5 percent compared to its January 2022 average.
Looking at NXT’s five episodes on the USA Network this year, this week’s numbers represented a loss of 36 percent viewership and a 45.5 percent drop in the 18-49 demo, so NXT was impacted much more than Raw.
Thurston reported the demo figures with the largest loss being seen among adults 18-34 that dropped by 57 percent from last week with females down 68 percent in that demo and men dropping by 54.5 percent. Females 18-49 declined by 53.5 percent this week to an average of 26,000.
The last time NXT aired on Syfy was last summer with two episodes that were taped in advance. On July 27th, they averaged 520,000 viewers and 150,000 in 18-49 and August 3rd averaged 520,000 and 135,000.
In Canada, this week’s episode only dropped by 9 percent with an average viewership of 61,000 viewers on Sportsnet 360. The show did not place among the top ten sports programs for the day and therefore, we don’t have a demo figure for Canada.
The move to Syfy is caused by the USA Network’s coverage of the Winter Olympics, which will continue next week when NXT presents its Vengeance Day special. These numbers reinforce the question of why they opted to run a special edition of the show when it’s a given that numbers will be way down compared to saving the special for the USA Network.
