More on AEW vs. NXT Week 72 Viewership

The February 17th episodes of AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT saw AEW gain a small increase in viewership and sizable increase in key demographic rankings while NXT gained a very sizable increase in both viewership and key demographic rankings. AEW continued their advantage over NXT in regards of key demographic viewership. This week’s NXT show was notable for being the post-TakeOver: Vengeance Day PPV show.

AEW drew 747,000 viewers and a #4 ranking in the 18-49 demographic while NXT drew 713,000 and a #39 ranking in the 18-49 demographic.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that viewership for both shows benefited from a weak night in terms of competition although both were also partially affected by the widespread power outage suffered in Texas. Meltzer also reported that besides post-TakeOver interest, NXT also benefited from a much stronger lead-in viewership with the return of NCIS as their lead-in program on USA Network.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW reportedly had 400,000 viewers while NXT had 202,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that this week’s AEW show skewed younger than last week’s show while the opposite occurred for NXT.

In terms of key demographic breakdowns, AEW reportedly doubled NXT’s viewership in every key demographic except for the 35-49 group. AEW’s biggest increase was with their Females 18-34 group at 30.3% higher while their sole decrease was with their Females 35-49 group at 2.3% lower than last week’s show. NXT’s biggest increase was with their Males 18-34 group at 100% higher and their sole decrease was with their Females 18-34 group at 44.4% lower than last week’s show.

In terms of quarter-hour breakdowns, AEW reportedly won every quarter for key demographic viewership and five out of eight quarters for overall viewership. NXT reportedly won the first, second, and fifth quarter for overall viewership.

In terms of the main event quarter, AEW reportedly had 741,000 for overall viewership and 394,000 for key demographic viewership while NXT had 617,000 for overall viewership and 163,000 for key demographic viewership.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW reportedly was down 16.3% in overall viewership but stayed the same for key demographic viewership while NXT was down 10.2% in overall viewership and down 36% in key demographic viewership. In an interesting tidbit, Meltzer reported that NXT’s show last year had around 2.3 times more Females 18-34 viewers than AEW while this week’s AEW show had around 4.3 times more Females 18-34 viewers than NXT.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 772,000 viewers and their biggest increase of the night was the latter half of the Riho vs. Serena Deeb match and the Shaquille O’Neal & Jade Cargill vignette which gained 26,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the first half of the AEW World Tag Team Championship match of Santana & Ortiz vs. The Young Bucks which lost 76,000 viewers.

WWE NXT started off with around 997,000 viewers and their biggest increase of the night was the Men’s and Women’s Dusty Tag Team Classic winners segment which gained 55,000 viewers. NXT’s biggest decline of the night was the Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell vs. Shotzi Blackheart & Ember Moon match which lost 225,000 viewers. NXT’s overrun gained an additional 81,000 viewers to end the night.