AEW Dynamite Week 168 & Rampage Week 71 Update, More on AEW Week 169 – Jan. 3, 2023 & Rampage Week 72 – Dec. 30, 2022

Jan 7, 2023

AEW Dynamite Week 168 Viewership Update

As noted before, the December 28th episode of AEW Dynamite drew 876,000 viewers, a 0.28 key demographic rating, and a #5 key demographic ranking on TBS.

This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter provided more viewership details that were unavailable in last week’s issue.

In terms of the one million viewership milestone, none of AEW’s eight quarters drew one million or more viewers. AEW’s peak quarter hour viewership was at 997,000 viewers for their first quarter while their quarter low was at 745,000 viewers for their seventh quarter.

AEW Dynamite quarter hour viewership breakdowns for that week’s show were:

1Q – 997,000 overall viewers and 402,000 key demo viewers (Bulk of the Bryan Danielson vs. Ethan Page match with MJF promo)
2Q – 925,000 overall viewers and 360,000 key demo viewers (Ending of the Danielson vs. Page match, the Wardlow & Samoa Joe backstage segment, and the Hangman Adam Page & Dark Order backstage segment)
3Q – 915,000 overall viewers and 373,000 key demo viewers (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Top Flight match and the Best Friends & Kip Sabian backstage segment)
4Q – 895,000 overall viewers and 386,000 key demo viewers (HOOK vs. Baylum Linx match and post-match with The Firm and Jack Perry, the Chris Jericho backstage promo segment, the Mogul Affliates & Wheeler Yuta backstage segment, and the start of the AEW World Trios Championship Best of Seven series Match 6 Falls Count Anywhere match of The Elite vs Death Triangle )
5Q – 891,000 overall viewers and 381,000 key demo viewers (Bulk of The Elite vs. Death Triangle match)
6Q – 826,000 overall viewers and 340,000 key demo viewers (Ending of The Elite vs. Death Triangle match, The Acclaimed music video segment, and the first half of the Ruby Soho & Willow Nightingale vs. TayJay match)
7Q – 745,000 overall viewers and 304,000 key demo viewers (Second half of the Soho & Nightingale vs. TayJay match, The Gunns backstage segment, and the Ricky Starks backstage promo segment)
8Q – 817,000 overall viewers and 329,000 key demo viewers (TNT Championship match of Wardlow vs. Samoa Joe (c) and post-match with Darby Allin)

AEW Rampage Week 71 Viewership Update

As noted before, the December 23rd episode of AEW Rampage drew 566,000 viewers, a 0.18 key demographic rating, and a #5 key demographic ranking on TBS.

This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter provided more viewership details that were unavailable in last week’s issue.

AEW Rampage quarter hour viewership breakdowns for that week’s show were:

1Q – 576,000 overall viewers and 261,000 key demo viewers (Bulk of the $300,000 Three Kings Christmas Casino Trios Royale match)
2Q – 590,000 overall viewers and 243,000 key demo viewers (Ending of the Casino Trios Royale match and the Eddie Kingston, Ortiz, & House of Black promo segment)
3Q – 547,000 overall viewers and 215,000 key demo viewers (Sammy Guevara & Daniel Garcia backstage segment, the TBS Championship Eliminator match of Vertvixen vs. Jade Cargill, the Ruby Soho & Willow Nightingale video promo segment, and the Wardlow video promo segment)
4Q – 550,000 overall viewers and 225,000 key demo viewers (The Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal vs. Billy Gunn & Anthony Bowens match)

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for January 4th

The January 4th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW suffer a small drop in overall viewership and key demographic ratings but gained a slight increase in key demographic ratings. This week’s episode was notable for being the debut of AEW’s new stage and production changes.

AEW drew 864,000 viewers and a 0.26 key demographic rating on TBS. 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 declines this week was due to the declines from their younger key demographic viewership and older key demographic viewership groups, which were down 7.9% and 10.8% compared to last week’s show. Another reason reportedly was due to the tougher than usual competition from non-sports programming that night. This reportedly offset the gains from their Teenagers viewership and Over 50 viewership groups, which were up 27.3% and 2.4% compared to last week’s show. Meltzer reported that due to the large declines from their key demographic viewership, this week’s show had a median viewership age of 53 years old.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Milwaukee Bucks vs. Toronto Raptors drew 1,029,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of TCU vs. Baylor drew 316,000 viewers on ESPN2, the College basketball game of Iowa State vs. Oklahoma drew 266,000 viewers on ESPN2, the College basketball game of Villanova vs. Georgetown drew 126,000 viewers on FS1, the NHL game of New Jersey Devils vs. Detroit Red Wings drew 399,000 viewers on TNT, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City drew 610,000 viewers on Bravo, and Challenge: Ride or Dies drew 521,000 viewers on MTV.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 336,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 had 85,000 viewers, Females 18-34 had 43,000 viewers, Males 35-49 had 139,000 viewers, and Females 35-49 had 76,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 224,000 male viewers and 112,000 female viewers for a split of 66.7% in favor of males. Note: The numbers for the Females 18-34 and Females 35-49 given by Meltzer are off by 7,000 in total based on AEW’s total key demographic viewership and percentage split for this week’s show.

In terms of the one million viewership milestone, one of AEW’s eight quarters drew one million or more viewers. AEW’s peak quarter hour viewership was at 1,037,000 viewers for their first quarter while their quarter low was at 768,000 viewers for their seventh quarter.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was down 14.5% in overall viewership and down 39.8% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that AEW’s 18-34 viewership was down 47.1% compared to the same week last year.

AEW Dynamite quarter hour viewership breakdowns were:

1Q – 1,037,000 overall viewers and 372,000 key demo viewers (Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Starks match)
2Q – 919,000 overall viewers and 360,000 key demo viewers (Jericho vs. Starks post-match brawl with JAS & Action Andretti and the John Moxley & Hangman Adam Page promo segment)
3Q – 896,000 overall viewers and 362,000 key demo viewers (Bulk of the AEW World Tag Team Championship of Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett vs. The Acclaimed (c))
4Q – 832,000 overall viewers and 343,000 key demo viewers (Ending of the AEW World Tag Team Championship match, the Britt Baker & Jamie Hayter backstage promo segment, the Jack Perry & Hook backstage promo segment, and the Bryan Danielson vs. Tony Nese match)
5Q – 865,000 overall viewers and 341,000 key demo viewers (MJF & Bryan Danielson promo segment)
6Q – 774,000 overall viewers and 306,000 key demo viewers (Swerve Strickland vs. AR Fox match, and the Saraya, Hikaru Shida, & Toni Storm backstage segment)
7Q – 768,000 overall viewers and 298,000 key demo viewers (The Gunns’ promo segment and the Jade Cargill & Red Velvet vs. Kiera Hogan & Skye Blue match)
8Q – 822,000 overall viewers and 306,000 key demo viewers (TNT Championship match of Darby Allin vs. Samoa Joe (c))

More on AEW Rampage Viewership for December 30th

The December 30th episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW suffer a very large decline in overall viewership and key demographic rankings and a small decline in key demographic ratings. That week’s show was notable for being the New Year’s Smash special.

AEW Rampage drew 470,000 viewers and a 0.12 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show was 28th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s declines that week was due to very stiff sports competition that night and the large declines from all of their demographic viewership groups, which were down 33.3% in Teenagers demographic, 50% in younger key demographic, 22.7% in older key demographic, and 18.2% in Over 50 demographic. Meltzer reported that all of the Top 10 ranked shows that night were Orange Bowl 2022 game and related coverage on ESPN.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the College football Orange Bowl 2022 game of Tennessee vs. Clemson drew 8,590,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of USC vs. Washington drew 94,000 viewers on ESPN2, the NBA game of Portland Trailblazers vs. Golden State Warriors drew 498,000 viewers on NBA TV, the Copa Mexico 2022 game of Monarcas Mazatla vs. Tigres drew 414,000 viewers on TUDN, and Gold Rush: White Water drew 885,000 viewers on Discovery Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 154,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 85,000 male viewers and 69,000 female viewers for a split of 55.2% in favor of males. Meltzer also reported that week’s Rampage show did not rank in the Top 10 youngest skewing sports show for the week while that week’s Dynamite was the 9th youngest skewing sports show, behind one NBA game and seven English Premiere League soccer games.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was up 3.8% in overall viewership but down 37.4% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that AEW’s 18-34 viewership was down 50% compared to the same week last year.

AEW Rampage quarter hour viewership breakdowns were:

1Q – 509,000 overall viewers and 170,000 key demo viewers (AEW All-Atlantic Championship match of Trent Beretta vs. Orange Cassidy (c) and post-match with Penelope Ford & Kip Sabian and the Sting & Darby Allin video promo segment)
2Q – 483,000 overall viewers and 161,000 key demo viewers (Kip Sabian vs. Atiba match, the Perro Peligrosos backstage interview segment, the Jon Moxley promo segment, and the Sonjay Dutt, Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal & Satnam Singh backstage promo segment)
3Q – 454,000 overall viewers and 143,000 key demo viewers (TBS Championship match of Kiera Hogan vs. Jade Cargill (c), the Jamie Hayter backstage interview segment, and the Mark Sterling & Varsity Athletes backstage interview segment)
4Q – 433,000 overall viewers and 142,000 key demo viewers (Swerve Strickland vs. Wheeler Yuta match)