More on AEW & NXT Week 115 Viewership – Dec. 14 & 15, 2021, AEW Rampage Week 18

Dec 18, 2021

More on WWE NXT Viewership for December 14th

The December 14th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a sizable drop in overall viewership while also gain sizable increases in key demographic ratings and key demographic ranking.

NXT drew 561,000 viewers and a 0.14 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 36th 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 the main reason for NXT’s viewership decline this week was due to their lower than usual over 50 demographic group. Meltzer reported that this was enough to offset the gains from their younger demographic viewers, which was up 25% in the Teenagers group and up 69.4% in the 18-34 demographic group. Meltzer also reported that NXT’s overall viewership was the lowest since their February 10th episode.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Golden State Warrior vs. New York Knicks drew 2,349,000 viewers on TNT and the College basketball game of Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Memphis Tigers drew 617,000 viewers on ESPN.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 176,000 viewers. NXT’s biggest increase was with their Males 18-34 group at 75% higher than last week’s show. NXT’s sole decrease was with their Females 35-49 group at 17.9% lower than last week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 26.8% in overall viewership and down 30.2% in key demographic viewership but also up 32.6% in 18-34 key demographic viewership.

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for December 15th

The December 15th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW gain a large increases in overall viewership but also suffered a slight decrease in key demographic ratings. This week’s show was notable for being the Winter Is Coming II themed special.

AEW drew 948,000 viewers and a 0.31 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that night was 5th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s viewership increase this week was due to their much larger than usual over 50 demographic group viewership. Meltzer reported that this was enough to offset the decline in AEW’s older key demographic group, which 8.3% lower than last week’s show. This decline in AEW’s older key demographic group reportedly was also the reason behind AEW’s decline in key demographic ratings for this week’s show. Meltzer reported that due to the huge increase in older viewership, this week’s show skewed the oldest in Dynamite history at a median age of 53 years old.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Los Angeles Lakers vs. Dallas Mavericks drew 1,879,000 viewers on ESPN, The Challenge drew 725,000 viewers on MTV, and Real Housewives of Orange County drew 955,000 viewers on Bravo.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 398,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest increase was with their Males 18-34 group at 18.6% higher than last week’s show. AEW’s biggest decrease was with their Females 35-49 group at 19.8% lower than last week’s show.

In an interesting note, Meltzer reported that this week’s show managed to top Monday’s WWE RAW show in Males 18-34 at 83,000 viewers for AEW compared to 80,000 viewers for RAW.

In terms of the one million viewership milestone, AEW averaged over one million viewers for their fourth and fifth quarters. AEW’s fourth and fifth quarters both averaged around 1,035,000 viewers for the final twenty minutes of the AEW World Championship match, the SuperKliq & Bobby Fish backstage promo segment, and the Wardlow vs. Matt Sydal match. Meltzer reported in Friday’s Daily Update that the peak overall viewership was around 1,204,000 viewers during the final minute of the AEW World Championship match and the peak key demographic viewership was around 500,000 viewers during the MJF, FTR, Sting, Darby Allin, & CM Punk brawl that closed out the show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was up 17.4% in overall viewership but down 5.2% in key demographic viewership. AEW was also up 27.6% in 18-34 key demographic viewership compared to the same week’s show last year.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 947,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the final portion of the AEW World Championship match of Bryan Danielson vs. Hangman Adam Page which gained 92,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the Tay Conti & Penelope Ford video package, the Malakai Black vignette segment, and the Serena Deeb vs. Hikaru Shida match which lost 180,000 viewers.

More on AEW Rampage Viewership for December 10th

The December 10th episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW gain a slight increase in overall viewership and key demographic rankings

AEW Rampage drew 503,000 viewers and a 0.18 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 small increase that week was due to their higher than usual older viewership. This was enough to offset the large declines in AEW’s overall female key demographic viewership, which was down 41.9% in Females 18-34 and down 25.5% in Females 35-49 groups compared to the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that due to the large decline in AEW’s younger key demographic viewership, that week’s show skewed the oldest in Rampage history at 50 years old. For some comparisons, Meltzer reported that week’s episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown skewed at 56 years old for the median age.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Boston Celtics vs. Phoenix Suns drew 1,427,000 viewers on ESPN.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 237,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest increase was with their Males 35-49 group at 22.3% higher than the prior week’s show. AEW’s biggest decrease was with their Females 18-34 group at 41.9% lower than the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that week’s Rampage show was the sixth youngest sports show for the week, behind one Mexican Liga MX soccer game, one UFC event, AEW Dynamite, and two English Premier League soccer games.

AEW Rampage started off with around 601,000 viewers and had around 497,000 viewers for their second quarter, around 465,000 viewers for their third quarter, and around 450,000 viewers for their main event quarter featuring the Adam Cole vs. Wheeler Yuta match.