Things had been going so well for NXT on Tuesday nights. And, really, they still are!
But while the rating among 18 - 49 year olds was only down slightly on April 27 - and the show actually finished 16 places better among cable originals than it did the week before with a higher demo number - it’s the 11% drop in viewership that jumps out at you.
Last night’s episode was watched by 744,000 people, 97K less than April 20’s. The rating fell only slightly, from .23 to .22. Without a huge news story dominating the cable channels like the Chauvin verdict did the week before, NXT actually rose in the rankings from 27th to 11th.
So it’s certainly not all, or even mostly, bad news. But while we always hear viewership is the metric networks and advertisers pay the least attention to, WWE and USA can’t want to see a big drop-off like that.
We’ll see if the return of Finn Bálor, a Women’s Tag title Street Fight, and a Falls Count Anywhere grudge match can turn bring back the eyeballs next Tuesday.
For complete results and the live blog for NXT this week click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For a full playlist of the show click here.
Numbers via Showbuzz Daily.