AEW and NXT went against heavier sports competition on Wednesday with each program experiencing a small increase in viewers and demo rating.
With the NBA Finals kicking off with Game 1 between the L.A. Lakers and Miami Heat and the ongoing Major League Baseball playoffs to contend with, AEW Dynamite finished #12 for the night on cable with 896,000 viewers and a 0.33 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Conversely, NXT finished with 732,000 viewers and a 0.19 demo rating for their go-home episode prior to Sunday’s TakeOver special.
The numbers for AEW represented an increase of 4 percent in viewers and 3 percent in the demo number. NXT was up 5 and 5.5. percent respectively, although finished #50 among cable programs.
In Canada, AEW Dynamite averaged 81,100 viewers on TSN2 and did 54,900 in the 25-54 demographic. It was the eighth most-watched sports broadcast of the day led, of course, by the Toronto Blue Jays vs. Tampa Bay Rays playoff game, and the NBA game was second.
Game 1 between Los Angeles and Miami was big on ABC with 7,410,000 viewers beginning at 9 pm Eastern, going against the second hour of AEW and NXT.
The Wild Card game between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians ran against AEW and NXT for the entire duration doing 2,535,000 viewers and was second on cable for the night. Topping the cable charts, was the massive South Park Pandemic Special that did 2,272,000 viewers and a 1.16 rating in the 18-49 demo, which ran from 8-9 pm.
Despite the heavy competition, both wrestling programs largely maintained their audiences across the demos. AEW’s only drop of note was males 12-34 falling from 0.18 to 0.16 with the other demos either staying even or increasing.
NXT saw it’s female 18-49 audience improve by 14 percent and females 12-34 increasing by 12.5 percent.
AEW doubled NXT in males 18-49 with a 0.44 to 0.22 rating. The adult over 50 demo was close as NXT edged AEW 0.37 to 0.34. AEW won all the other key demos with the most competitive being males 12-34 that AEW won by 0.01.
Next week, both programs will avoid the NBA Finals but will be facing the Vice-Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, as well as the Major League Baseball playoffs.
Here are the comparisons of both programs:
Source: Showbuzz Daily
ADULTS 18-49
AEW: 0.33 (+3 percent)
NXT: 0.19 (+5.5 percent)
FEMALES 18-49
AEW: 0.23 (Even)
NXT: 0.16 (+14 percent)
MALES 18-49
AEW: 0.44 (+10 percent)
NXT: 0.22 (+5 percent)
ADULTS 18-34
AEW: 0.20 (Even)
NXT: 0.11 (+10 percent)
FEMALES 12-34
AEW: 0.16 (Even)
NXT: 0.09 (+12.5 percent)
MALES 12-34
AEW: 0.16 (-11 percent)
NXT: 0.15 (+7 percent)
ADULTS 25-54
AEW: 0.40 (+5 percent)
NXT: 0.22 (Even)
ADULTS 50+
AEW: 0.34 (+6 percent)
NXT: 0.37 (Even)
