AEW aired a three-hour block of programming this past Saturday featuring the return of Collision and its quarterly Battle of the Belts special.
After last week’s pre-emption due to the WrestleDream pay-per-view, Collision returned with a taped episode from Stockton averaging 346,000 viewers and 139,000 (0.10) in the 18-49 demographic, per Wrestlenomics.
The site reports that Collision ranked fourth among cable originals in prime time on Saturday behind the New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Guardians on TBS, and two college football games.
AEW’s college football competition included LSU vs. Arkansas on ESPN, Georgia vs. Texas on ABC, and West Virginia vs. Kansas State on Fox.
Cable sports TV ratings for Saturday:
-Yankees vs. Guardians (ALCS Game 5) on TBS 8pm: 5.517M viewers*
-Auburn vs. Missouri on ESPN 12pm: 2.447M
-College Gameday on ESPN 9am: 2.219M
-Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech on ESPN 3:30pm: 1.592M
-LSU vs. Arkansas on ESPN 7pm: 1.356M
-TCU…— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) October 22, 2024
The episode from two weeks ago aired head-to-head with the WWE Bad Blood special and led to Collision falling to 269,000 viewers and 68,000 (0.05) in the demo.
For a better comparison with a normal airing, the September 28 edition of Collision averaged 435,000 viewers and 168,000 (0.13) in the 18-49 demographic.
Collision’s overall viewership was up 29% from October 5 but fell by 21% from September 27.
The 18-49 audience grew by 104% from October 5 but dropped 17% from September 27.
The 18-34 audience was up 153% from October 5 and declined by 30% from September 27.
The 35-49 audience improved by 91% from October 5 and dropped by 11% from September 27.
This past weekend’s show featured Claudio Castagnoli, PAC & Wheeler Yuta defending the Trios titles against Action Andretti & Top Flight in the main event and The BCC brawling with Dark Order that bled into the Battle of the Belts portion.
The 12th installment of Battle of the Belts generated 304,000 viewers and 111,000 (0.08) in the 18-49 demographic, which were new lows for the Battle of the Belts specials.
The last special aired on July 27 during the Summer Olympics and averaged 308,000 viewers and 124,000 (0.09) in the demo immediately following an episode of Collision.
Saturday’s airing from 10-11 p.m. ET on TNT included a Continental Championship match between Kazuchika Okada and Kyle O’Reilly and was headlined by an eliminator bout between women’s champion Mariah May and Anna Jay.
