NXT recorded its third-largest viewership since moving to the CW for this past Tuesday’s episode featuring an NXT Championship match.
The December 17 edition from Lowell, Massachusetts, saw the brand average 708,000 viewers and 210,000 (0.16) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Programming Insider.
The audience increased by 4% this week to its largest number since October 8, which was the second episode on CW and featured Randy Orton vs. Je’Von Evans.
In the core demo, NXT dropped by 8% from last week’s number of 218,000 viewers in 18-49. The drop was due to females decreasing from 0.11 to 0.09 with males staying flat at 0.22.
Competition on Tuesday included the NBA Cup Final between the Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder, which averaged 2,988,000 viewers and 0.79 in 18-49 on ABC, and a North Carolina vs. Florida game on ESPN.
In Canada, the show averaged 86,700 viewers and 19,100 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360, which was ninth for the night in sports.
NXT featured Trick Williams defending the NXT Championship against Eddy Thorpe in the main event. The main event was the peak quarter in the 18-49 demographic with 227,000 viewers – a 9% increase from the prior quarter.
Wrestlenomics reports that the peak quarter in viewership was between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. ET for Axiom vs. Oba Femi and backstage segments involving Eddy Thorpe, Karmen Petrovic & Dion Lennox, and the start of Meta-Four vs. Zaria Sol Ruca with 771,000 viewers.
The show will air taped editions on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and return with a live edition on January 7 with New Year’s Evil in Los Angeles.
