More on AEW & NXT Week 117 Viewership – Dec. 28 & 29, 2021, AEW Rampage Week 20

More on WWE NXT Viewership for December 28

The December 28th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a large increase in overall viewership, key demographic ratings, and key demographic ranking.

NXT drew 662,000 viewers and a 0.16 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 15th 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 increases this week was due to the large gains from their overall and younger key demographic viewership, which was up 42.6 in overall key demographic and up 52.1% in overall 18-34 groups compared to last week’s show. Meltzer reported that these large gains were enough to cause NXT’s median age for viewership to drop from 64 years old the prior week to 59 years old for this week’s show. Meltzer also reported that this was NXT’s youngest skewing show since November 9th.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the College football AutoZone Liberty Bowl game of Mississippi State Bulldogs vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders drew 3,916,000 viewers on ESPN.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 211,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 was up 25%, Females 18-34 was up 133.3%, Males 35-49 was up 71.4%, and Females 35-49 was down 18.4% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 13% in overall viewership and up 33.5% in key demographic viewership.

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More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for December 29th

The December 29th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW suffer a small decline in overall viewership and key demographic rankings. This week’s show was notable for being AEW’s final regular episode on TNT.

AEW drew 975,000 viewers and a 0.37 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that night was 4th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s decline this week was due to their lower than usual overall male and over 50 demographic groups. This reportedly was enough to offset the large gains from their overall female viewership, which was up 31.5% compared to last week’s show. Meltzer reported that stiff sports competition also played a major role in the decline AEW’s male viewership, which was enough to cause the gender split for male viewers to drop to 67% for the show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the College football Cheez-It Bowl game of Clemson Tigers vs. Iowa State Cyclones drew 4,902,000 viewers on ESPN, the College football Valero Alamo Bowl game of Oregon Ducks vs. Oklahoma Sooners drew 4,735,000 viewers on ESPN, and the NBA game of Los Angeles Lakers vs. Memphis Grizzles drew 489,000 viewers on NBA TV.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 485,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was down 16.3%, Females 18-34 was up 28.2%, Males 35-49 was down 7.4%, and Females 35-49 was up 32.9% compared to last week’s show.

In an interesting note, Meltzer reported that this week’s AEW show managed to top this past Monday’s WWE RAW in overall Males 18-49, Males 18-34, and Males 35-49 groups. For Males 18-49, AEW had 321,000 viewers compared to 276,000 for RAW. For Males 18-34, AEW had 82,000 viewers compared to 80,000 viewers for RAW. For Males 35-49, AEW had 239,000 viewers compared to 196,000 viewers for RAW.

In terms of the million viewership milestone, only AEW’s main event quarter averaged over one million viewers, which was 1,056,000 viewers for that quarter.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was down 0.4% in overall viewership and down 7.4% in key demographic viewership.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 985,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly, & Adam Cole vs. Best Friends match which gained 98,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the ending of the FTR & Hardy Family Office vs. Jurassic Express, Christian Cage, & Lucha Brothers 10-man tag team match and the first half of the Eddie Kingston, Santana, & Ortiz vs. Daniel Garcia & 2point0 match which lost 50,000 viewers.

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More on AEW Rampage Viewership for December 25th

The December 25th episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW gain a slight increase in overall viewership and key demographic ratings but suffered a large decline in key demographic rankings. That week’s episode was notable for being preempted to a Saturday night airing due to TNT’s A Christmas Story marathon.

AEW Rampage drew 589,000 viewers and a 0.26 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show was 25th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s increase that week was due to the gains from their younger key demographic viewership, an earlier start time than usual, and stronger lead-in programming. Meltzer reported that AEW’s overall 18-49 viewership was their highest for a Rampage show since September 24th. This reportedly was enough to generate a median age of 45 for that week’s show, which tied for the youngest in Rampage history.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NFL game of Indianapolis Colts vs. Arizona Cardinals drew 12,624,000 viewers on NFL Network and the NBA game of Brooklyn Nets vs. Los Angeles Lakers drew 930,000 viewers on ESPN.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 335,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was up 1.6%, Females 18-34 was up 20%, Males 35-49 was up 12.9%, and Females 35-49 was up 1.7% compared to the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that week’s Rampage show was the youngest skewing sports show for the week. That week’s Dynamite show was the third youngest, only behind Rampage and one NBA game.

AEW Rampage started off with around 598,000 viewers and had around 550,000 viewers for their second quarter, around 578,000 viewers for their third quarter, and around 629,000 viewers for their main event quarter featuring the bulk of the TNT Championship match of Cody Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara.