AEW Rampage fell to its lowest 18-49 number while airing in its normal slot going against the NBA and NFL Draft.
The taped show from Philadelphia averaged 464,000 viewers and approximately 179,000 (0.14) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
WWE Smackdown last week Friday on Fox:
1,953,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.38 (490k)AEW Rampage last week Friday on TNT:
464,000
P18-49: 0.14 (179k)Against NBA playoffs & NFL draft, lowest P18-49 ever for both in normal timeslot.
📊 More demos & analysis: https://t.co/1SscdBCpr8 pic.twitter.com/zmKJS6O6Be
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) May 2, 2022
This would be Rampage’s lowest 18-49 audience when airing in its regular slot on TNT. They did average a lower number for the March 18th edition of the show, which didn’t air until 11:45 p.m. ET that night due to NCAA basketball.
The impact of airing against an NBA playoff game and the second night of NFL Draft coverage was immense with a loss 10 percent in overall viewers and 28 percent in the 18-49 demographic.
With the key demo, males dropped by 24 percent and females declined by 29 percent.
The 18-34 audience only dropped by ten percent while the 35-49 audience was down by 35 percent compared with last week’s numbers.
Rampage finished #25 among cable originals, which was led by the Memphis vs. Minnesota game on ESPN that averaged 3,474,000 and 1.20 in 18-49 airing against the show. Rampage also went against ESPN 2’s coverage of the NFL Draft, which averaged 1,408,000 and 0.44 in 18-49 while the NFL Network’s coverage did 985,000 and 0.31 respectively.
It was a night dominated by ESPN on cable with seven of the top ten cable programs belonging to the network.
Friday’s episode was headlined by Samoa Joe defending the ROH Television title against Trent Beretta and included an Owen Hart Cup qualifying match between Darby Allin and Swerve Strickland.
The next few weeks will be tough for Rampage and it will be impacted by TNT’s coverage of the NHL playoffs. The promotion is currently advertising a 5:30 p.m. ET start for this week’s program.
