More on AEW & NXT Week 127 Viewership – March 8 & 9, 2022, AEW Week 126 Update, AEW Rampage Week 30

Mar 12, 2022

AEW Dynamite Week 126 Update – March 2, 2022

As noted before, the March 2nd episode of AEW Dynamite drew 966,000 viewers and a 0.35 key demographic rating on TBS. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that night was 8th place.

This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter provided detailed demographic and quarter-hours breakdowns that were unavailable last week.

Dave Meltzer reported that the main reason for AEW’s declines that week was due to stiff competition from news programming, which dominated that night’s rankings with 16 of the Top 20 shows.

In terms of key demographic viewership breakdowns, AEW’s Males 18-34 was down 6.4%, Females 18-34 was down 11.6%, Males 35-49 was down 9.7%, and Females 35-49 was down 24.1% compared to the prior week’s show.

AEW’s Teenagers demographic group was down 18.8%, overall 18-34 group was down 8.3%, overall 35-49 group was down 14.2%, and over 50 group was roughly even.

More on WWE NXT Viewership for March 8th

The March 8th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain large increases in overall viewership and key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 613,000 viewers and a 0.13 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 55th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for NXT’s increases this week was due to their higher than usual overall key demographic viewership, which was the highest since their January 25th episode. Another reason reportedly was due to the large gains in their older key demographic viewership groups which was enough to offset the declines from their younger key demographic viewership group. Meltzer reported that NXT’s increases from their older viewership was also enough to offset very stiff competition from news related programming, which took 15 of the Top 20 rankings for shows that night.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of New Orleans Pelicans vs. Memphis Grizzles drew 1,055,000 viewers on TNT, the NCAA basketball game of St. Mary’s vs. Gonzaga drew 1,074,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Wright State vs. Northern Kentucky drew 565,000 viewers on ESPN, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,608,000 viewers on History Channel, Real Housewives of New Jersey drew 956,000 viewers on Bravo, and Wipeout drew 346,000 viewers on TBS.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 176,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 was down 10.7%, Females 18-34 was down 5.6%, Males 35-49 was down 9%, and Females 35-49 was up 56.3% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 11.3% in overall viewership and down 23.1% in key demographic viewership.

WWE NXT started off with around 570,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the bulk of the NXT Championship Triple Threat match of Dolph Ziggler vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Bron Breakker (c) which gained 71,000 viewers. NXT’s biggest decline of the night was the Io Shirai & Kay Lee Ray vs. Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter match which lost 32,000 viewers.

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for March 9th

The March 9th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW suffer a small decline in overall viewership but also gained a large increase in key demographic ratings and key demographic rankings.

AEW drew 945,000 viewers and a 0.40 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 mixed results this week was due to their large gains from their older key demographic viewership was mostly offset by their declines in their younger key demographic and over 50 viewership groups. AEW’s overall 35-49 viewership was up 20% while their overall 18-34 viewership was down 1.2% and their over 50 viewership was down 15.3% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Phoenix Suns vs. Miami Heat drew 1,117,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Clemson vs. Virginia Tech drew 605,000 viewers on ESPN 2, the NHL game of Washington Capitols vs. Edmonton Oilers drew 290,000 viewers on TNT, South Park drew 621,000 viewers, and Real Housewives of Orange County drew 834,000 viewers.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 516,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was down 10.6%, Females 18-34 was up 14.8%, Males 35-49 was up 12.2%, and Females 35-49 was up 39% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of the million viewership milestone, only one of AEW’s eight quarter hours drew one million or more viewers. AEW’s peak was at 1,113,000 viewers for their first quarter and their low point was 886,000 viewers for their fourth quarter.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was up 27.2% in overall viewership and up 24.3% in key demographic viewership.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 1,113,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the Andrade, Matt Hardy, & AHFO Meeting segment and Jeff Hardy’s AEW debut which gained 38,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the AEW World Championship match of Dante Martin vs. Hangman Adam Page (c) which lost 186,000 viewers.

More on AEW Rampage Viewership for March 4th

The March 4th episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW gain large increases in overall viewership, key demographic ratings and key demographic rankings.

AEW Rampage drew 545,000 viewers and a 0.22 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show was 16th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s gains that week was due to weaker competition from news programming and the large gains from their key demographic viewership groups, which was up 95.6% in overall 18-34 and up 10.6% in overall 35-49 compared to the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that another main reason was due to the combo of that week’s show airing live and the high interest leading into that weekend’s Revolution 2022 event.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of New York Knicks vs. Phoenix Suns drew 1,254,000 viewers on ESPN and Gold Rush: White Water drew 1,291,000 viewers on Discovery Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 293,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was up 94.1%, Females 18-34 was up 100%, Males 35-49 was up 7.9%, and Females 35-49 was up 13.3% compared to the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that week’s Rampage show was the second youngest skewing sports show for the week, only behind UFC Prelims. That week’s Dynamite show reportedly was the sixth youngest, behind UFC, Rampage, two NHL games, and one NBA game.

AEW Rampage started off with around 616,000 viewers and had around 545,000 viewers for their second quarter, around 509,000 viewers for their third quarter, and around 509,000 viewers for their main event quarter featuring the Face of the Revolution Qualifier match of Christian Cage vs. Ethan Page.