More on AEW vs. NXT Week 76 Viewership

The March 17th episodes of AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT saw AEW gain a small increase while NXT suffered a large drop in overall viewership. AEW continued their advantage over NXT in regards to key demographic viewership. This week’s AEW show was notable for being their St. Patrick’s Day Slam themed show.

AEW drew 768,000 viewers and a #6 ranking in the 18-49 demographic while NXT drew 597,000 and a #42 ranking in the 18-49 demographic.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NXT’s show this week managed to generate the third lowest key demographic viewership since the move to the USA Network and the lowest ever in terms of the lack of notable sports competition. Meltzer speculated that a possible reason for NXT’s low key demographic viewership this week might have been due to a sizable amount of those viewers could have been away from their homes celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Meltzer reported that the top entertainment shows that night also saw sizable drops in their key demographic viewership.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 362,000 viewers while NXT had 136,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that the peak key demographic viewership for both shows was the Unsanctioned Lights Out match of Britt Baker vs. Thunder Rosa, which peaked at 450,000 viewers. Meltzer also reported that while AEW’s show skewed the youngest for the week for sports programming, it also skewed older than last week’s show due to their 12.8% drop in the key demographic viewership. All four of AEW’s key demographic groups were down with their biggest decline being their Females 35-49 group at 22.9% lower than last week’s show. NXT’s sole increase was with their Females 18-34 group at 40.9% higher while their biggest decline was with their Males 35-49 group at 46.5% lower than last week’s show.

In terms of the main event quarter, AEW reportedly had 795,000 for overall viewership and 387,000 for key demographic viewership. NXT reportedly had 523,000 for overall viewership and 123,000 for key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s main event quarter this week might have set the record for lowest key demographic viewership for a main event of NXT since their move to the USA Network.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was down 17.6% in overall viewership and down 20% in key demographic viewership compared to the same week last year. NXT was up 10.1% in overall viewership but down 18.8% in key demographic viewership compared to the same week last year.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 848,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the Unsanctioned Lights Out match which gained 119,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the Sting, Darby Allin, Jake Roberts, Lance Archer, & Team Taz interview segment and the beginning of the Rey Fenix vs. Angelico match which lost 119,000 viewers.

WWE NXT started off with around 663,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the Grizzled Young Veterans segment, Marcel Barthel vs. Tommaso Ciampa match and post-match stuff with WALTER, and the Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole segment which gained 40,000 viewers. NXT’s biggest decline of the night was the Dexter Lumis vs. Austin Theory match and Ciampa interview segment which lost 51,000 viewers. NXT’s overrun gained an additional 264,000 viewers to end the night, which Meltzer reported was one of their largest ever overrun increases.