Likely because they're on a network confined to the upper tiers of most folks' cable and satellite television packages - if they get it at all - the ratings for El Rey's Lucha Underground don't get picked apart as much as WWE or even TNA.
Really, the only metric that matters in the short term is whatever ones the producers used to justify a third season, as they officially did earlier this week. But viewership is definitely part of the equation, and fans hoping for the show to continue want some confirmation that more people are catching the fever and helping make sure that happens.
Plus, we just love keeping score. So, here's what we were able to find.
For the first two weeks of season two, Lucha Undergound is getting more than 100,000 viewers in its intial broadcast Wednesdays at 8PM Eastern. It is also pulling in close to that figure in its second run immediately following at 9PM, for a cumulative total of approximately 200,000 per episode.
Jan. 27: 194,000 (109K at 8PM; 85K at 9PM)
Feb. 3: 201,000 (125K at 8PM; 76K at 9PM)
There was some controversy about last week's number. An initial report from Showbuzz Daily had the initial airing of the season two premeire at only 44,000, but it turns out that was viewership for of a replay of the last episode of season one. Some updated reports then put the first run audience more around 130,000, but the 109K number above is cited more frequently around the web.
How does that compare to last year? Though there doesn't appear to have been much rhyme or reason, but an accounting of the 13 episodes which ran from Feb. 11 - May 6 averaged 69,500 in Eastern time some debut and 29,600 in their replay for the West Coast, or right around 100K.
Now, that doesn't include the weekend Spanish-language broadcast on UniMas, which is gone this year (and was reportedly getting about 200,000 views per episode early in 2015), but it looks promising comparing apples to apples. Though everyone involved obviously would like to see bigger numbers, pretty much doubling last season's viewership right off the bat is a great start.
It's hard to tell where the ceiling could be either, as I was unable to find really up-to-date numbers about the number of households that have El Rey. Wikipedia has them in approximately 40 million, but a mid-2015 report from TV by the Numbers only claims their reach to be about 35 million.
As with all ratings these days, this doesn't include DVR statistics. And I don't think it includes streaming options like Sling or Fubo, although since those largely just provide access to El Rey (unlike a more on demand, over-the-top service like Hulu), their numbers may factor in to El Rey's thinking more than other cord-cutter methods of watching.
So, it's a good start, we think? Let's all keep watching every Wednesday just to be sure, though, okay?