NXT ratings skyrocket, for some reason

The ratings and viewership data are in for the May 17 edition of NXT. And despite NBA & NHL Playoff competition, they’re among the show’s best of the last several months.

According to Showbuzz Daily, NXT was watched by 601,000 people. That’s a 13% increase from last week. The 18-49 year old rating was .14, a 40% increase from last week’s historic low.

That meant 2.0 finished 30th among cable originals, on a night when the top five shows were all sports-related, led by the Boston Celtics/Miami Heat Eastern Conference Semi-final game with 6.1 million viewers and a 2.22 demo rating.

It’s not at all clear, at least to this writer, why this week’s show did so much better than last week’s. The advertised matches weren’t significantly more exciting, although there were men involved in last night’s advanced card. I doubt Viking Raiders and Santos Escobar bouts made that much of a difference, but again [shrug emoji]. Maybe wrestling fans were tuning in to see if Vic Joseph called Sasha Banks & Naomi unprofessional?

Here’s our usual look at NXT’s viewership and 18 - 49 year old demo rating since the 2.0 rebranding last September.

• Sept. 14 - 770K / .21
• Sept. 21 - 746K / .20
• Sept. 28 - 655K / .14
• Oct. 5 - 632K / .13
• Oct. 12 - 632K / .15
• Oct. 19 - 606K / .14
• Oct. 26 - 746K / .18
• Nov. 2 - 631K / .15
• Nov. 9 - 603K / .15
• Nov. 16 - 574K / .11
• Nov. 23 - 625K / .14
• Nov. 30 - 637K / .15
• Dec. 7 - 590K / .11
• Dec. 14 - 561K / .14
• Dec. 21 - 591K / .11
• Dec. 28 - 662K / .16
• Jan. 4 - 685K / .16
• Jan. 11 - 647K / .14
• Jan. 18 - 587K / .11
• Jan. 25 - 593K / .14
• Feb. 1 - 619K / .13
• Feb. 8* - 400K / .07
• Feb. 15* - 525K / .11
• Feb. 22 - 612K / .12
• Mar. 1 - 551K / .13
• Mar. 8 - 613K / .13
• Mar. 15 - 624K / .14
• Mar. 22 - 628K / .14
• Mar. 29 - 626K / .14
• April 5 - 631K / .14
• April 12 - 610K / .12
• April 19 - 569K / .12
• April 26 - 577K / .14
• May 3 - 661K / .13
• May 10 - 533K /.10
• May 17 - 601K / .14

For complete results and the live blog for NXT this week click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s show click here. For a full playlist of the show click here.

* Aired on SyFy