More on AEW & NXT Week 86 Viewership – May 25 & 28, 2021

Jun 5, 2021

More on WWE NXT Viewership for May 25

The May 25th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer slight declines in both overall viewership and key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 698,000 viewers and a 0.13 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that week’s episode is currently not known.

This week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter provided more details for that week’s NXT show.

Dave Meltzer reported that NXT’s overall 18-49 key demographic viewership and older male key demographic viewership suffered the most from very stiff competition from NBA Playoff games that night. Meltzer reported that when factoring in same day DVR viewership, the split for that week’s episode was 72% who watched it live, 24% who watched it via DVR, and the rest who watched it via VOD.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 174,000 viewers. NXT’s sole increase was with their Males 18-34 group at 68.4% higher than the prior week’s show. NXT’s biggest decrease was with their Males 35-49 group at 30.7% lower than the prior week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 2.4% for overall viewership and down 33.1% in key demographic viewership.

WWE NXT started off with around 693,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the Cameron Grimes, Ted DiBiase, & LA Knight Million Dollar Face-off segment and the Indi Hartwell & Ever-Rise backstage segment which gained 58,000 viewers. NXT’s biggest decline of the night was the Hit Row video promo segment and the Zayda Ramier vs. Mercedes Martinez match which lost 38,000 viewers. NXT’s overrun gained an additional 72,000 viewers to end the night.

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for May 28

The May 28th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW suffer a large decline in both overall viewership and key demographic viewership. That week’s show was notable for airing on a Friday 10PM timeslot due to TNT’s current NBA Playoffs commitments and scheduling issues.

AEW drew 526,000 viewers and a 0.20 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show reportedly was at 10th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW’s show that week suffered heavily from the late airing time slot and very stiff sports competition from both the NBA and NHL Playoffs. Meltzer reported that when factoring same day DVR viewership, the split was around 437,000 live viewers and the rest who watched it via DVR viewership.

In an interesting note, Meltzer reported that based on a notable non-Nielsen ratings outlet, around 13.77% of those who watched at least one minute of WWE’s Friday Night SmackDown show that night also watched AEW’s show. Meltzer reported that the total viewership for those who watched at least 1 minute of both shows was around 3,858,000 viewers for SmackDown and 1,021,000 viewers for Dynamite.

In regards to head-to-head competition, the NBA Playoffs Game 3 of Los Angeles Clippers vs. Dallas Mavericks on ESPN drew 2,629,000 viewers and a 1.03 key demographic rating. The NHL Playoffs Game 7 of Minnesota Wild vs. Vegas Golden Nights on NBCSN drew 998,000 viewers and a 0.33 key demographic rating.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 263,000 viewers. AEW’s sole increase was with their Females 35-49 group at 8.6% higher than the prior week’s show. AEW’s biggest decrease was with their Females 18-34 group at 56.5% lower than the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that AEW’s show that week managed to top NXT’s show in all key demographic groups with the exception of the Females 18-34 group. NXT reportedly had 22,000 viewers while AEW had 20,000 viewers for that key demographic group.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was down 36.4% for overall viewership and down 36.3% in key demographic viewership.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 642,000 viewers and none of AEW’s quarters gained viewers for the night. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the Hangman Adam Page vs. Joey Janela match and the post-match Page, Brian Cage, and Team Taz angle which lost 58,000 viewers.