AEW Rampage saw a significant loss in viewership airing on Saturday night outside of its normal evening.
The taped episode from Pittsburgh on April 22nd averaged 371,000 viewers and approximately 157,000 (0.12) in the 18-49 demographic. (Showbuzz Daily and Wrestlenomics)
The show ranked #26 among cable originals while airing against the NBA and NHL playoffs. Rampage aired directly against the Memphis Grizzlies vs. L.A. Lakers, which topped cable with 4.2 million viewers and 1.49 in the key demo. AEW also contended against the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Tampa Bay Lightning game on TBS (1.1 million viewers and 0.36) and the first nineteen minutes of Colorado vs. Seattle (860,000 and 0.27).
Rampage is coming off one of its largest audiences in history the week prior (639,000 viewers and 0.21 in the demo) due to the show airing immediately after the NBA playoffs on TNT which led to a massive first quarter that skewed the average high. It’s not a relevant comparison given last week’s number was artificially high due to the NBA and this week’s is artificially low due to the Saturday night airing.
The next two episodes of Rampage on 4/28 and 5/5 will air on Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET on TNT due to coverage of the NHL playoffs on the network.
This past Saturday’s episode included a main event match between El Hijo del Vikingo and Dralistico, Jon Moxley taking on Christopher Daniels, and Jeff Hardy addressing the audience.
The final two episodes of this season of WWE Rivals aired back-to-back on Sunday night on A&E.
The first episode chronicled Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart and their feud from 1996-97, which ended up being a transformative one due to the speed-up of Steve Austin’s popularity coming out of WrestleMania 13 in the Submission Match with Hart. The show averaged 445,000 viewers and 196,000 (0.15) in the 18-49 demographic, which ranked #24 among cable originals that night. (Showbuzz Daily & Wrestlenomics
Following that episode, a new Rivals covering Austin vs. Shawn Michaels averaged 433,000 viewers and the same 0.15 in the demo that the previous hour averaged and ranked #25 among cable originals.
The two episodes represented the largest 18-49 audiences of the season for Rivals and the third and fourth in the history of the series behind episodes on Austin vs. The Rock and WWF vs. WCW in season one.
The second season of WWE Rivals averaged 383,000 viewers and 0.13 in the demo over ten episodes. The most-watched episode of the season was Austin vs. Hart followed by Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, and Austin vs. Michaels.
