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On Christmas, AEW took the night off completely, forfeiting that battle in the Wednesday Night War to NXT. Obviously, this gave WWE the best wrestling TV numbers on Dec. 25.
When Dynamite returned on New Year’s, NXT ran a show - but it was a clip show of matches from the past year. The new content (the announcement of Year-End Award winners and reveal of the field for the show’s tag tournament) wasn’t exactly must see TV. WWE showed up, but they played prevent defense. And the numbers bear that out.
Per Showbuzz Daily, AEW drew one of the biggest audiences in Dynamite’s existence - and best since October. The “Homecoming” episode was watched by 967,000 people on Jan. 1. The show’s .36 rating among 18 - 49 year olds was its best since before Thanksgiving, and good enough for 13th place among cable originals. Non-wrestling programming on New Year’s Day included a lot of live college football, both head-to-head in primetime and throughout the day.
NXT, on the other hand, fell back to 548,000 viewers. That’s down almost 300K from the week prior when Dynamite wasn’t an option. Ratings-wise, they only had a .15 share of 18 - 49 year olds. That’s the worst number since the show moved to USA, and landed them in 66th place for the night on cable.
Here’s a breakdown of AEW viewership and rating in the 18-49 demo through 14 weeks:
- Oct. 2: 1.4 million / .68
- Oct. 9: 1.02 million / .46 on TNT, plus 122K from Tru TV simulcast for total viewership of approximately 1.14 million
- Oct. 16: 1.01 million / .44
- Oct 24: 963,000 / .45
- Oct 30: 759,000 / .34
- Nov. 6: 822,000 / .35
- Nov. 13: 957,000 / .43
- Nov. 20: 893,000 / .39
- Nov. 27: 663,000 / .26
- Dec. 4: 851,000 / .32
- Dec. 11: 778,000 / .28
- Dec. 18: 683,000 / .25
- Dec. 25: N/A
- Jan. 1: 967,000 / .36
Here’s a breakdown of NXT’s audience and ratings share of the same demographic through 16 weeks:
- Sept. 18 (one hour on USA): 1.18 million / .56
- Sept. 25 (one hour on USA): 1.01 million / .40
- Oct. 2: 891,000 / .32
- Oct. 9: 790,000 / .22
- Oct. 16: 712,000 / .20
- Oct. 24: 698,000 / .21
- Oct 30: 580,000 / .18
- Nov. 6: 813,000 / .30
- Nov. 13: 750,000 / .25
- Nov. 20: 916,000 / .30
- Nov. 27: 810,000 / .24
- Dec. 4: 845,000 / .29
- Dec. 11: 778,000 / .24
- Dec. 18: 795,000 / .27
- Dec. 25 - 831,000 / .22
- Jan. 1 - 548,000 / .15
Total viewership for Wednesday night checked in at 1,515,000 pro wrestling fans.... up slightly from Dec. 18 when both shows had packed line-ups of fresh matches.
The war resumes in earnest on Jan. 8 when both shows are back live.
Check out both our Dynamite live blog, review & video highlights and our NXT live blog, review & video highlights, in case you missed any of Wednesday Night War chapter thirteen.