More on AEW vs. NXT Week 46 Viewership & NXT Week 47 Viewership

Aug 22, 2020

AEW vs. NXT Week 46 Viewership Update

As noted before, the August 12th episodes of AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT resulted in Dynamite generating around 792,000 viewers on TNT and a #9 ranking in the 18-49 demographic while NXT generated around 619,000 viewers on USA Network and a #65 ranking in the 18-49 demographic.

This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter provided an update that featured more details for both shows that week.

Dave Meltzer reported that AEW won every quarter-hour in terms of overall viewership and key demographic viewership. AEW reportedly also doubled NXT’s key demographic viewership in three out of eight quarters and in the final viewership total. AEW also reportedly hit the one million viewers mark once during their show, which took place during the final quarter hour.

NXT’s highest point in terms of key demographic and overall viewership reportedly took place during the first quarter hour. Meltzer reported that this was likely due to the big advantage NXT has over AEW in regards to lead-in programming viewership on their respective networks. AEW’s high point in terms of key demographic and overall viewership reportedly took place during the sixth quarter, which was the Tag Team Appreciation Night segment.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 775,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the Tag Team Appreciation Night segment which gained 45,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the Hikaru Shida vs. Heather Monroe match, post-match Shida interview segment, Jake Roberts & Lance Archer promo segment, and ad promo for next week’s show which lost 123,000 viewers.

WWE NXT started off with around 720,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the Timothy Thatcher segment, ad promo for next week’s show, and the intros to the Triple Threat Qualifier for NXT North American Championship Ladder match which gained 28,000 viewers. NXT’s biggest decline of the night was the Drake Maverick vs. Killian Dain match and Adam Cole promo segment which lost 113,000 viewers.

More on NXT Week 47 Viewership

The August 19th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT generate their highest overall viewership of the year and rose by a significant amount in key demographic rankings. This episode was notable for being unopposed by AEW Dynamite which was pre-empeted to August 22nd on TNT due to NBA Playoffs coverage.

NXT drew 853,000 viewers on USA Network and a #23 ranking in 18-49 demographic.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that despite very stiff competition from the 2020 Presidential Democratic Convention and NBA and NHL playoffs, NXT did very well in terms of viewership at a 234,000 gain from the week before. Meltzer speculated that NXT might have been able to generate around a 300,000 viewership gain had it been a normal night’s competition and ran unopposed by AEW Dynamite.

Meltzer also reported that the intital takeaway from NXT’s huge viewership gain is that both WWE and USA Network have been hurting themselves by being in a viewership war against AEW on Wednesdays.

NXT’s viewership for this week reportedly was their highest of the year and the highest since the November 20th episode. Meltzer reported that in terms of key demographic viewership, it was the highest since the February 19th episode and second highest of the year.

In regards to comparisons with last week’s total AEW and NXT viewership, Meltzer reported that NXT’s biggest gains from AEW came from AEW’s older viewers and male viewers. AEW’s female viewers reportedly did not carry over in large numbers for this week’s NXT episode.

Due to demographic breakdowns not being available for last week’s episode of NXT, Meltzer compared this week’s episode with NXT’s episode two weeks ago. NXT’s biggest gains were with the 35-49 demographic group at 2.6% and the over 50 demographic group at 7.7%. NXT’s biggest declines were with the teenagers demographic group at a 16.7% decrease and the 18-34 demographic group at a 18.2% decrease.

United Kingdom Viewership for Week of August 3rd

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW drew 145,000 viewers for their August 7th episode of Dynamite on ITV 4 in the United Kingdom.

NXT reportedly drew less than 20,000 viewers for their August 5th episode on BT Sport in the United Kingdom. Meltzer reported that NXT had failed to rank in the top sports programming for that night.