AEW Dynamite draws one of its worst viewership totals of the year for Adam Copeland’s debut

The ratings and viewership data are in for this week’s (Oct. 4) episode of AEW Dynamite.

Per Wrestlenomics, Dynamite netted 800,000 viewers and a .28 rating with the 18-49 year old demographic. Total viewership was down compared to last week’s 855K, while the demo rating remained exactly the same.

There’s only one episode of Dynamite in 2023 that fell below 800K viewers, and that happened on May 3 against stiff competition from the NBA playoffs and Vanderpump Rules. That gives this week’s episode the second lowest viewership total for Dynamite this year, while the 0.28 demo rating is also on the low end of what Dynamite typically brings in. Dynamite finished 6th place on cable for the night in the key demo, only trailing baseball-related programming.

Even with baseball playoffs going on, it’s surprising to see numbers at this level for Dynamite, given this week was the anniversary show that featured Adam “Edge” Copeland’s debut appearance on the show. Is there something else going on underneath the hood here? There just might be.

Prior to Dynamite airing, Tony Khan sent out multiple tweets pointing out a DVR listing error for the show across multiple cable companies:

Later that night, Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer explained how this DVR issue could significantly hurt Dynamite’s numbers:

“There were a number of cable companies...that for whatever reason, and I have no idea what this is other than it was a problem at TBS...they listed the show from 4 to 6 eastern time. And so everyone who normally DVRs it missed the show. And between Twitter and emails, I got a lot of responses from people.

...The number of people who usually watch live is about 70, 75 percent of the people who watch on the same day. And the rest are watching DVR later that day. So of those, probably a good 12 percent, I’m gonna guess, DVR’d the wrong show and didn’t get to watch.

...This problem, for whatever reason, will exist...next week’s Dynamite is listed for the wrong time in their listings. Maybe it has to do with baseball, I don’t know.”

“...It should hurt, as far as same day ratings. It should hurt, legitimately, 10 percent.”

You can make of that what you will. But as it stands right now, NXT already beat AEW Dynamite in total viewership this week before even getting to next week’s Tuesday night war.

Here’s a breakdown of AEW viewership and rating in the 18-49 demo over the last year:

• Oct. 5, 2022: 1,038,000 / .33
• Oct. 12: 983,000 / .32
• Oct. 18: 752,000 / .26
• Oct. 26: 997,000 / .32
• Nov. 2: 911,000 / .29
• Nov. 9: 930,000 / .32
• Nov. 16: 818,000 / .28
• Nov. 23: 880,000 / .32
• Nov. 30: 870,000 / .26
• Dec. 7: 840,000 / .29
• Dec. 14: 950,000 / .33
• Dec. 21: 957,000 / .30
• Dec. 28: 876,000 / .28
• Jan. 4, 2023: 864,000 / .26
• Jan. 11: 967,000 / .33
• Jan. 18: 969,000 / .31
• Jan. 25: 1,003,000 / .32
• Feb. 1: 901,000 / .31
• Feb. 8: 899,000 / .30
• Feb. 15: 824,000 / .27
• Feb. 22: 1,028,000 / .35
• Mar. 1: 833,000 / .27
• Mar. 8: 858,000 / .29
• Mar. 15: 852,000 / .27
• Mar. 22: 954,000 / .33
• Mar. 29: 833,000 / .28
• Apr. 5: 877,000 / .30
• Apr. 12: 866,000 / .28
• Apr. 19: 830,000 / .28
• Apr. 26: 863,000 / .28
• May 3: 776,000 / .28
• May 10: 877,000 / .32
• May 17: 814,000 / .28
• May 24: 846,000 / .32
• May 31: 923,000 / .29
• June 7: 903,000 / .33
• June 14: 832,000 / .30
• June 21: 902,000 / .33
• June 28: 809,000 / .24
• July 5: 855,000 / .29
• July 12: 825,000 / .29
• July 19: 953,000 / .34
• July 26: 898,000 / .29
• Aug. 2: 894,000 / .31
• Aug. 9: 846,000 / .29
• Aug. 16: 874,000 / .32
• Aug. 23: 870,000 / .32
• Aug. 30: 871,000 / .30
• Sept. 6: 887,000 / .31
• Sept. 13: 888,000 / .31
• Sept. 20: 984,000 / .36
• Sept. 27: 855,000 / .28
• Oct. 4: 800,000 / .28

For complete results and this week’s Dynamite live blog click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For video highlights of the show click here.