More on AEW & NXT Week 126 Viewership – March 1 & 2, 2022, AEW Rampage Week 29

Mar 5, 2022

More on WWE NXT Viewership for March 1st

The March 1st episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer large declines in overall viewership and key demographic rankings but also gained a slight increase in key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 551,000 viewers and a 0.13 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 70th 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 mixed results this week was due to very stiff competition from news programming covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address. Meltzer reported that only six out of the top 52 television programs that night were non-news related shows. Another reason for the mixed numbers was due to the large gains from NXT’s Males 35-49 key demographic group, which was up 27.1% compared to last week’s show, was offset by the large decline in NXT’s younger key demographic viewership, which was down 8% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Atlanta Hawks vs. Boston Celtics drew 932,000 viewers on TNT and the College basketball game of Purdue vs. Wisconsin drew 1,191,000 viewers on ESPN. The State of the Union 2022 drew 4,830,000 viewers on CNN, 7,206 million viewers on FOX News, 4,056,000 viewers on MSNBC, 6,302,000 viewers on ABC, 4,857,000 viewers on CBS, 3,607,000 viewers on NBC, and 1,958,000 viewers on FOX.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 165,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 was down 30%, Females 18-34 was up 80%, Males 35-49 was up 27.1%, and Females 35-49 was down 5.9% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 19.5% in overall viewership and down 36.3% in key demographic viewership.

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for March 2nd

The March 2nd episode of AEW Dynaite saw AEW suffer large declines in overall viewership, key demographic ratings, and key demographic rankings.

AEW drew 966,000 viewers and a 0.35 key demographic rating on TBS. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that night was 8th place.

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

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of New York Knicks vs. Philadelphia 76ers drew 1,444,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of LSU vs. Arkansas drew 823,000 viewers on ESPN 2, the College basketball game of Notre Dame vs. Florida State drew 296,000 viewers on ESPN 2, South Park drew 525,000 viewers on Comedy Central, and the NHL game of St. Louis Blues vs. New York Rangers drew 486,000 viewers on TNT.

In terms of key demographic viewership, Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that AEW had 460,000 viewers.

In terms of the million viewership milestone, two out of AEW’s eight quarter hours drew one million or more viewers. AEW’s peak was at 1,100,000 viewers for their first quarter and their low point was at 853,000 viewers for their eighth quarter.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was up 3.4% in overall viewership and up 6.1% in key demographic viewership.

Thurston reported that AEW Dynamite started off with around 1,100,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the CM Punk & MJF promo and brawl segment and the Keith Lee & Team Taz backstage segment which gained 21,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the Thunder Rosa & Mercedes Martinez vs. Britt Baker & Jamie Hayter match and the Jade Cargill, Anna Jay, & Tay Conti backstage promo segment which lost 85,000 viewers.

More on AEW Rampage Viewership for February 25th

The February 25th episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW gain a slight increase in overall viewership, suffered a slight decline in key demographic ratings, and suffered a large decline in key demographic rankings. This week’s show was notable for AEW returning to their normal time slot following last week’s preemption to an earlier start time of 7PM EST due to TNT’s 2022 NBA All-Star commitments.

AEW Rampage drew 473,000 viewers and a 0.18 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show was 46th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s mixed results that week was due to their much lower than usual younger key demographic viewership, which broke the record for lowest ever rating at 0.06 in Rampage series history. Meltzer reported that the main reason for this dubious record was due to AEW’s female younger key demographic viewership was only around 11,000 for the show. AEW’s large declines in their key demographic viewership, which was down 9.7% compared to the prior week’s show, was enough to offset the large gains from AEW’s male older key demographic and over 50 demographic viewership groups, which were up 2.4% and 18.8% respectively.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Los Angeles Clippers vs. Los Angeles Lakers drew 1,384,000 viewers on ESPN and Gold Rush: White Water drew 1,237,000 viewers on Discovery Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 232,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was down 26.1%, Females 18-34 was down 42.1%, Males 35-49 was up 2.4%, and Females 35-49 was down 13% 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 reportedly was the second youngest, only behind Rampage.

AEW Rampage started off with around 511,000 viewers and had around 467,000 viewers for their second quarter, around 454,000 viewers for their third quarter, and around 461,000 viewers for their main event quarter featuring the Face of the Revolution Qualifier match of Orange Cassidy vs. Anthony Bowens.