More on AEW & NXT Week 120 Viewership – Jan. 18 & 19, 2022, AEW Rampage Week 23

Jan 22, 2022

More on WWE NXT Viewership for January 18th

The January 18th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer large declines in overall viewership, key demographic ratings, and key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 587,000 viewers and a 0.11 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 50th 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 declines this week was due to the larger than usual drops in their female and younger key demographics viewership groups, which was down 30.2% for the latter compared to last week’s show. Meltzer reported that NXT’s overall key demographic viewership was the third lowest in NXT history since the move to USA Network and only 1,000 viewers higher than the all-time low of 148,000 viewers. NXT’s key demographic rating of 0.11 reportedly tied for the lowest ever in NXT history on USA Network and tied for the second lowest ever when including SCFY network.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the College basketball game of Duke Blue Devils vs. Florida State Seminoles drew 1,121,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Kansas Jayhawks vs. Oklahoma Sooners drew 986,000 viewers on ESPN, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,781,000 viewers on History Channel, and Wipeout drew 652,000 viewers on TBS.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 149,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 was down 40%, Females 18-34 was down 17.9%, Males 35-49 was up 19.7%, and Females 35-49 was down 55.8% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 10.9% in overall viewership and down 24% in key demographic viewership.

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for January 19th

The January 19th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW gain large increases in overall viewership and key demographic ratings and a slight increase in key demographic ranking.

AEW drew 1,032,000 viewers and a 0.44 key demographic rating on TBS. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that night was 1st place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s increases this week was due to their larger than usual older female key demographic viewership, which was 44.2% higher than last week’s show. Another reason reportedly was due to the very strong lead-in programming on TBS, which led to the the first minute of AEW’s show generating around 1,700,000 viewers.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Charlotte Hornets vs. Boston Celtics drew 1,060,000 viewers on ESPN and Real Housewives of Orange County drew 978,000 viewers on Bravo.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 570,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was up 7.3% Females 18-34 was up 2.7%, Males 35-49 was up 6.2%, and Females 35-49 was up 44.2% 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 show in overall 18-49, overall Males 18-49, and Males 35-49. For Males 18-49, AEW had 358,000 viewers compared to 330,000 viewers for RAW. For Males 35-49, AEW had 233,000 viewers compared to 213,000 viewers for RAW. Meltzer also reported that the main factor for AEW topping RAW this week in overall key demographic viewership was due to RAW facing very stiff competition from a NFL Playoff game for the first time ever in RAW history.

In terms of the million viewership milestone, five out of AEW’s eight quarter hours averaged one million or more viewers. AEW’s peak was at 1,218,000 viewers for their first quarter and their low point was at 941,000 viewers for their seventh quarter.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was up 20.8% in overall viewership and up 22.3% in key demographic viewership.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 1,218,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the Sting & Darby Allin vs. The Acclaimed match which gained 6,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the Mixed Tag Team match of Adam Cole & Britt Baker vs. Orange Cassidy & Kris Statlander which lost 91,000 viewers.

More on AEW Rampage Viewership for January 14th

The January 14th episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW suffer large declines in overall viewership, key demographic ratings, and key demographic ranking.

AEW Rampage drew 526,000 viewers and a 0.20 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show was 15th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s declines that week was due the large declines in their older key demographic viewership, which was down 21.8% compared to the prior week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Dallas Mavericks vs. Memphis Grizzles drew 1,400,000 viewers on ESPN and Gold Rush: White Water drew 1,258,000 viewers on History Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 256,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was down 14.3%, Females 18-34 was up 8.6%, Males 35-49 was down 13.8%, and Females 35-49 was down 38.4% compared to the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that week’s Rampage show was the third youngest skewing sports show for the week, only behind a Spanish Super Cup soccer game and that week’s Dynamite show.

AEW Rampage started off with around 560,000 viewers and had around 517,000 viewers for their second quarter, around 515,000 viewers for their third quarter, and around 513,000 viewers for their main event quarter featuring the AEW World Tag Team Championship match of Dark Order (John Silver & Alex Reynolds) vs. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) (c).