AEW Rampage saw a minor increase in its audience on Friday airing against the Stanley Cup Final, and heavy cable news coverage that dominated cable.
The June 24th taped edition of the show from Milwaukee averaged 422,000 viewers and approximately 157,000 (0.12) in the 18-49 demographic with data from Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
WWE Smackdown, Friday on Fox 8-10pm:
2,231,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.53AEW Rampage on TNT at 10pm:
422,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.12📊 https://t.co/1SscdBCpr8 pic.twitter.com/6yHGGjBvYr
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) June 27, 2022
Rampage finished #26 among cable originals on Friday, which was dominated by cable news programming reacting to and covering the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe vs. Wade. The coverage led to 18 of the top 20 positions on cable being occupied by news programming.
While there was the heavier competition this week with the news and NHL game doing 5,145,000 viewers (1.49 in 18-49) on ABC, it was still Rampage’s second-lowest 18-49 audience in its normal time slot in the history of the show. It was also Rampage’s third-lowest overall audience in the 10 p.m. ET time slot in its history going back to last August.
The go-home edition of Rampage for Forbidden Door saw an overall viewership increase by 14 percent, the 18-49 audience was flat with a one percent increase while both females 18-49 and adults 18-34 grew by 40 percent each from the week prior.
In adults 50+, Rampage moved from 0.17 to 0.21 to help the overall viewership number.
The show was coming off a terrible number the previous week even with the adjusted figures after a Nielsen error raised the final numbers to 369,000 viewers and 155,000 in 18-49.
Rampage featured Cash Wheeler taking on Jeff Cobb in the main event, as well as a heavily praised match between Rey Fenix and Andrade El Idolo that opened the show,
With the Stanley Cup Final concluding on Sunday, there is no more playoff competition this year and the question will be whether Rampage can bounce back to its pre-playoff levels?
The Countdown to Forbidden Door special on TNT immediately following Rampage averaged 212,000 viewers and 0.05 in the 18-49 demo, which would be the lowest figures for any of AEW’s countdown specials.
