AEW Rampage – airing several hours outside of its usual time – was decimated on Friday and posted its lowest audience ever.
The May 6th edition from Baltimore averaged 292,000 viewers with approximately 143,000 (0.11) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
AEW Rampage, moved to 5:30-6:30pm, Friday on TNT:
292,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.11
Lowest of any Rampage episode since August debut.WWE Smackdown on Fox, 8-10pm:
1,998,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.46
Up 22% in P18-49 from last week.📊 https://t.co/1SscdBCXgG pic.twitter.com/wK0v9fiutV
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) May 9, 2022
Rampage aired at 5:30 p.m. ET on TNT due to the network’s NHL playoff commitments and causing a 2:30 p.m. start time for viewers on the West Coast.
The time change led to a 37 drop in viewership and a 20 percent decline in the 18-49 demographic. The show lost nearly half of its 18-34 audience with a 45 percent drop from the week prior.
Rampage finished #49 among cable originals on Friday.
The one encouraging comparison was adults 35-49 only dropped by six percent and obviously, went out of their way to find the show at a different time.
In 18-49, females dropped 42 percent from the previous week while males only dropped by 11 percent.
Among adults 50+, the show fell from 0.23 to 0.12 this week.
In the regular Rampage time slot on TNT, the NHL playoff game between Minnesota and St. Louis averaged 483,000 and 0.18 in 18-49 to finish #17 among cable originals. Over the past two weeks against the NBA, Rampage averaged 491,000 and 0.17 in that time slot.
Rampage will encounter similar issues for this Friday’s episode, which is scheduled to air at an earlier time, but they have not announced the official start time yet.
Friday’s episode was headlined by the Rampage debut of DDT star Konosuke Takeshita against Jay Lethal, a match with Dr. Britt Baker & Jamie Hayter against Ruby Soho & Toni Storm, an Owen Hart qualifying match between Riho and Yuka Sakazaki, and a match involving Hook.
