More on AEW & NXT Week 111 Viewership – Nov. 16 & 17, 2021, AEW Rampage Week 14

Nov 20, 2021

More on WWE NXT Viewership for November 16th

The November 16th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a small drop in overall viewership and key demographic ratings but also suffered a large drop in key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 574,000 viewers and a 0.11 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 55th place.

Detailed demographic and quarter-hours breakdowns were not available in this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NXT’s show this week managed to generate its lowest ever key demographic viewership and rating since the move to USA Network. Meltzer reported that only a show from this past August that aired on SyFy instead of USA Network managed to draw a lower key demographic rating. Meltzer also reported that this was the first time since the February 10th episode that NXT failed to rank in the Top 50 shows for the night. Stiff competition from sports and news programming reportedly was one of the main reasons for NXT’s viewership numbers declines this week.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Golden State Warriors vs. Brooklyn Nets drew 2,293,000 viewers on TNT and the College Basketball game of Virginia Cavaliers vs. Houston Cougars drew 478,000 viewers on ESPN.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 143,000 viewers. All four of NXT’s key demographic viewership groups were down with the biggest being their Males 35-49 group at 35.1% lower than last week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 10% in overall viewership and down 19.7% in key demographic viewership.

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for November 17th

The November 17th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW gain a large increase in overall viewership and slight increase in key demographic ratings.

AEW drew 984,000 viewers and a 0.37 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that night was 3rd place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason AEW’s increase this week was due their higher than usual older male key demographic viewership, which was around 48,000 higher than last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Los Angeles Lakers vs. Milwaukee Bucks drew 1,474,000 viewers on TNT and The Challenge drew 628,000 viewers on MTV.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 480,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest increase was with their Males 35-49 group at 24.2% higher than last week’s show. AEW’s biggest decrease was with their Males 18-34 group at 14.7% lower than last week’s show.

In an interesting note, Meltzer reported that AEW’s show this week managed to top this past Monday’s WWE RAW show in overall Males 18-49 and Males 35-49 viewership. AEW had 333,000 viewers compared to RAW’s 332,000 for Males 18-49 viewership and AEW had 246,000 viewers compared to RAW’s 223,000 viewers for Males 35-49 viewership.

In terms of the one million viewership milestone, only the fifth and eight quarters managed to top over one million viewers. The fifth quarter reportedly averaged around 1,049,000 viewers while the eight quarter averaged around 1,006,000 viewers. AEW’s peak viewership reportedly was during the MJF & CM Punk in-ring segment at around 1,160,000 viewers.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was up 15.8% on overall viewership and up 0.6% in overall key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that AEW was also down 23.4% in 18-34 key demographic viewership compared to last year’s show.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 991,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the bulk of the TBS Championship tournament Quarter-finals match of Nyla Rose vs. Hikaru Shida and the MJF & CM Punk in-ring segment which gained 88,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the Darby Allin & Gunn Club backstage segment, the SuperKilq & Bobby Fish backstage segment, and the bulk of the Lio Rush & Dante Martin vs. The Acclaimed match which lost 80,000 viewers.

More on AEW Rampage Viewership for November 12th

The November 12th episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW suffer a large decline in overall viewership and key demographic rankings.

AEW Rampage drew 515,000 viewers and a 0.20 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show was 13th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s decline that week was due to its much lower than usual older male key demographic viewership, which was 32.9% lower than the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that AEW’s large decline with their overall older key demographic viewership was enough to offset the large gains they had with their younger key demographic viewership, especially their younger female key demographic viewership. Meltzer also reported that due to AEW’s large declines in male viewership, that week’s Rampage show had a higher percentage of female viewers with the split being 65% for males and 35% for females.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Chicago Bulls vs. Golden State Warriors drew 1,983,000 viewers on ESPN and the World Cup 2022 Qualifying soccer game of United States vs. Mexico drew 1,315,000 viewers on ESPN 2.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 263,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest increase was with their Females 18-34 group at 72.4% higher than the prior week’s show. AEW’s sole decrease was with their Males 35-49 group at 32.9% lower than the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that AEW’s Rampage show was the second youngest skewing sports show for the week, behind one College basketball game. Meltzer also reported that week’s Dynamite show was the fourth youngest behind Rampage, one College basketball game, and one NBA game.

AEW Rampage started off with around 587,000 viewers and had around 489,000 viewers for its second quarter, around 491,000 viewers for its third quarter, and around 493,000 viewers for its main event quarter featuring the Lumberjack match of Matt Hardy vs. Orange Cassidy.