More on AEW & NXT Week 91 Viewership – June 29 & 30, 2021

Jul 10, 2021

More on WWE NXT Viewership for June 29

The June 29th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer sizeable declines in both overall viewership and key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 636,000 viewers and a 0.13 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show reportedly was 34th place.

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 viewership and key demographic ratings were both the lowest ever for an unopposed show since the move to the USA Network. Meltzer reported that the main reasons for NXT’s declines was due to stiff sports competition and the large declines suffered in NXT’s 35-49 demographic groups viewership that week. In regards to head-to-head competition, the NBA Playoffs Game 4 of Milwaukee Bucks vs. Atlanta Hawks drew 4,626,000 viewers on TNT and the NCAA College World Series Game 2 of Mississippi State vs. Vanderbilt drew 1,411,000 viewers on ESPN.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 172,000 viewers. NXT’s sole increase was their Females 18-34 group at 10% higher than the prior week’s show. NXT’s biggest decline was their Females 35-49 group at 32.7% lower than the prior week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 19.7% in overall viewership and down 39.4% in key demographic viewership.

WWE NXT started off with around 729,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the bulk of the North American Championship match of Isiah “Swerve” Scott vs. Bronson Reed which gained 42,000 viewers. NXT’s biggest decline of the night was the Karrion Kross & Johnny Gargano promo and brawl segment and the Roderick Strong vs. Asher Hale match which lost 81,000 viewers. NXT’s overrun gained an additional 9,000 viewers to end the night.

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for June 30

The June 30th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW gain a very sizable increase in both overall viewership and key demographic ratings. That week’s show was notable for being the first time since the May 19th episode that Dynamite aired on its usual Wednesday night time slot on TNT.

AEW drew 883,000 viewers and a 0.35 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show reportedly was 7th place.

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

Dave Meltzer reported that despite very stiff sports competition, the main reason for AEW’s increases was due to the very large gains they had with their young viewership that week. Meltzer reported that the gains from their younger viewership were large enough to cause that week’s show to skew around three years younger overall from their usual average and push the gap to seven to ten years younger compared to WWE’s main three shows. In regards to head-to-head competition, the NBA Playoffs Game 6 of Phoenix Suns vs. Los Angeles Clippers drew 5,856,000 viewers on ESPN and the NHL Stanley Cup Finals Game 2 of Montreal Canadiens vs. Tampa Bay Lightning drew 1,645,000 viewers on NBC.

In terms of the one million viewership milestone, AEW reportedly had over one million viewers on three occasions during their show. Those were at the very end of the Britt Baker & Rebel vs. Vickie Guerrero & Nyla Rose match and twice during the main event match of Sammy Guevara vs. MJF.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 452,000 viewers. All four of AEW’s key demographic groups increased for the week with their biggest increase being their Females 18-34 group at 235% higher than the prior week’s show.

In an interesting note, Meltzer reported that AEW managed to top WWE’s SmackDown show that week in regards to the Males 35-49 viewership group. AEW had 215,000 viewers while SmackDown had 208,000 viewers.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was up 18% in overall viewership and up 21.5% in key demographic viewership.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 874,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the bulk of the Guevara vs. MJF match and the Jacksonville tribute video segment which gained 104,000 viewers. AEWs biggest decline of the night was the start of the Guevara vs. MJF match which lost 44,000 viewers.