More on AEW & NXT Week 121 Viewership – Jan. 25 & 26, 2022, AEW Rampage Week 24

More on WWE NXT Viewership for January 25th

The January 25th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a small increase in overall viewership and key demographic ratings and a sizeable increase in key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 583,000 viewers and a 0.14 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 41st 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 larger than usual Teenagers and younger key demographic viewership groups, which were up 50% and 63.6% respectively compared to last week’s show. This reportedly was enough to offset their declines from their over 50 viewership group, which was down 8.6% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Los Angeles Lakers vs. Brooklyn Nets drew 1,517,000 viewers on TNT, the College basketball game of Michigan State Spartans vs. Illinois Fighting Illini drew 937,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Mississippi State Bulldogs vs. Kentucky Wildcats drew 933,000 viewers on ESPN, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,752,000 viewers on History Island, and Wipeout drew 637,000 viewers on TBS.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 184,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 was up 42.9%, Females 18-34 was up 82.6%, Males 35-49 was down 1.2%, and Females 35-49 was up 47.7% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 17.6% in overall viewership and down 33.8% in key demographic viewership.

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More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for January 26th

The January 26th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW gain a small increase in overall viewership but suffered small drops in key demographic ratings and key demographic rankings. This week’s show was notable for being the Beach Break 2022 themed special.

AEW drew 1,100,000 viewers and a 0.41 key demographic rating on TBS. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that night was 2nd place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s mixed results this week was due to their larger than usual overall male key demographic viewership and over 50 viewership groups, which were up 5.9% and 13.5% respectively than last week’s show, but lower than usual overall female key demographic and younger key demographic viewership groups, which were down 29.1% and 14% respectively compared to last week’s show. Meltzer also reported that another reason for the mixed results was due to the lower than usual boost in female key demographic viewership from this week’s Big Bang Theory lead-in programming on TBS.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of New York Knicks vs. Miami Heat drew 1,065,000 viewers on ESPN, the NHL game of Chicago Blackhawks vs. Detroit Red Wings drew 484,00 viewers on TNT, and Moonshiners drew 1,168,000 viewers on History Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 530,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was down 12% Females 18-34 was down 17.1%, Males 35-49 was up 14.5%, and Females 35-49 was down 35.8% 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 Males 18-49 viewership at 379,000 viewers compared to 357,000 viewers for RAW.

In terms of the million viewership milestone, all eight of AEW’s quarter hours averaged one million or more viewers. AEW’s peak was at 1,222,000 viewers for their first quarter and their low point was at 1,041,000 viewers for their sixth quarter.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was up 49.9% in overall viewership and up 40.2% in key demographic viewership.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 1,222,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the latter half of the CM Punk & MJF promo segment, The Acclaimed video promo segment, and the Griff Garrison, Julia Hart, & Mark Sterling backstage segment which gained 47,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the Chris Jericho, Santana, & Ortiz vs. 2point0 & Daniel Garcia match which lost 134,000 viewers.

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More on AEW Rampage Viewership for January 21st

The January 21st episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW gain sizeable increases in overall viewership, key demographic ratings, and key demographic ranking.

AEW Rampage drew 594,000 viewers and a 0.24 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show was 6th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s increases that week was due to their larger than usual male younger viewership and stronger than usual overall viewership for their first quarter, which was up 109.5% for the former compared to the prior week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Chicago Bulls vs. Milwaukee Bucks drew 1,190,000 viewers on ESPN, the X-Games Aspen 2022 drew 441,000 viewers on ESPN, and Gold Rush White Water drew 1,334,000 viewers on Discovery Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 318,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was up 109.5%, Females 18-34 was up 5.3%, Males 35-49 was even, and Females 35-49 was up 31.1% compared to the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that week’s Rampage show was the youngest skewing sports show for the week while that week’s Dynamite show was the second youngest.

AEW Rampage started off with around 694,000 viewers and had around 573,000 viewers for their second quarter, around 550,000 viewers for their third quarter, and around 561,000 viewers for their main event quarter featuring the TBS Championship match of Anna Jay vs. Jade Cargill (c).