NXT can’t maintain last week’s gains against LeBron & the Lakers

The ratings and viewership data are in for this week’s (May 16) episode of WWE NXT.

According to Showbuzz Daily, last night’s show was watched by 564,000 and scored a .14 rating among 18-49 year olds. That’s down from last week, but outside of that and the Spring Breakin’ episode it’s in line with what the show’s been doing for the past couple months.

So why couldn’t WWE hold onto the folks who tuned in last Tuesday? It’s a safe bet some of them were watching the start of NBA’s Western Conference Finals between the top seeded Denver Nuggets and a little franchise called the Los Angeles Lakers with some guy named LeBron James. While there was plenty of competition on May 9, there was nothing that drew 7 million+ viewers and a 2.56 in the demo like Denver’s win did. That game aired on ESPN for most of NXT’s runtime, and easily finished first on all of television. NXT was 15th among cable originals.

May 23 will bring the Battleground go home, and competition from the other NBA series, game four of Boston vs. Miami. And after missing the hockey playoffs last night, NXT will have Game Three of the Dallas/Las Vegas Western Conference Finals as competition next Tuesday, as well.

Here’s NXT’s audience and ratings share of the 18-49 demographic over the past year:

• May 17 - 601K / .14
• May 24 - 551K / .13
• May 31 - 534K / .12
• June 7 - 657K / .14
• June 14 - 612K / .12
• June 21 - 637K / .18
• June 28 - 570K / .11
• July 5 - 593K / .12
• July 12 - 582K / .14
• July 19 - 588K / .13
• July 26 - 600K / .13
• Aug. 2 - 649K / .15
• Aug. 9 - 597K / .13
• Aug. 16 - 723K / .17
• Aug. 23 - 678K / .14
• Aug. 30 - 676K / .15
• Sept. 6 - 684K / .16
• Sept. 13 - 728K / .15
• Sept. 20 - 688K / .15
• Sept. 27 - 660K / .16
• Oct. 4 - 625K / .13
• Oct. 11 - 737K / .15
• Oct. 18 - 676K / .18
• Oct. 25 - 716K / .15
• Nov. 1 - 670K / .13
• Nov. 8 - 664K / .15
• Nov. 15 - 663K / .17
• Nov. 22 - 624K / .12
• Nov. 29 - 644K / .13
• Dec. 6 - 534K / .13
• Dec. 13 - 666K / .17
• Dec. 20 - 705K / .15
• Dec. 27 - 588K / .12
• Jan. 3 - 653K / .16
• Jan. 10 - 700K / .15
• Jan. 17 - 600K / .14
• Jan. 24 - 607K / .12
• Jan. 31 - 587K / .13
• Feb. 7 - 562K / .11
• Feb. 14 - 640K / .15
• Feb. 21 - 589K / .14
• Feb. 28 - 555K / .13
• Mar. 7 - 624K / .17
• Mar. 14 - 590K / .15
• Mar. 21 - 550K / .12
• Mar. 28 - 620K / .16
• April 4 - 555K / .13
• April 11 - 528K / .13
• April 18 - 565K / .14
• April 25 - 647K / .18
• May 2 - 568K / .14
• May 9 - 601K / .17
• May 16 - 564K / .14

* Aired on SyFy

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