NXT TakeOver Surpasses AEW Dynamite in Viewership for Final Head-to-Head Battle

– Showbuzz Daily has the overnight ratings for what will be the final Wednesday Night Wars head-to-head battle for AEW Dynamite on TNT and WWE NXT on the USA Network for the foreseeable future. This week, AEW Dynamite had to contend with Night 1 of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver, which was simulcast on USA Network and Peacock. Meanwhile, Dynamite tried to contend with Stand & Deliver with the announcement of the return of boxing legend Mike Tyson to Dynamite. Ultimately, NXT was able to surpass Dynamite in terms of audience viewership.

Overall, these were NXT’s best head-to-head numbers on Wednesday night in 2021 to date. It shouldn’t be too surprising. Usually when NXT has a special themed show against Dynamite, it tends to do better for viewership, as numbers have shown in the past with NXT’s Great American Bash and Halloween Havoc specials. NXT drew an average audience of 768,000 viewers for last night’s broadcast. That’s a significant increase of over a 100,000 viewers from last week’s audience of 654,000 viewers.

Meanwhile, Dynamite saw a drop in viewership for its third consecutive week. Not even the return of Mike Tyson to Dynamite was enough to stem the tide of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver. Last night’s Dynamite drew 688,000 viewers, falling below 700,000 for only the second time this year so far. It’s the second-lowest audience for AEW in 2021 since the January 6 episode drew 662,000 viewers.

In the P18-49 demo ratings, Dynamite still managed to finish ahead of NXT TakeOver, despite NXT drawing its highest rating of the year to date. Dynamite drew a 0.28 rating, up from last week’s 0.26. So the ratings gap was not as close as it was between AEW and NXT last week.

NXT finished with a 0.22 rating, which is slightly up from last week’s 0.21 rating. It’s NXT’s highest rating of the year so far. It’s also the highest rating NXT drew head-to-head against Dynamite since the Halloween Havoc special in October. Overall, NXT had a strong showing ahead of Night 2 of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver slated for later tonight on Peacock. Plus, WWE and NXT finished strong ahead of the show’s move to Tuesday nights next week on April 13.

Thanks to the increase in ratings this week, AEW did manage to move up the Cable Top 150 rankings. Dynamite finished at No. 5 this week, which is up from last week’s ranking of No. 7. NXT fell just barely outside of the Top 10 at No. 11. The show went up from No. 12 in the rankings last week. MTV’s Challenge: Double Agents topped the ratings for the evening with a 0.49. MSNB’s The Rachel Maddow Show topped the viewership for the evening with 3.079 million viewers:

As noted, NXT and AEW Dynamite will now air on separate nights starting next week. NXT will be moving to Tuesday nights starting April 13. Dynamite will be airing unopposed to NXT on April 14.

Here are the week-by-week numbers for the past year:

February 26th: AEW 0.30 (865,000 viewers), NXT 0.23 (717,000)
March 4th: AEW 0.35 (906,000 viewers), NXT 0.23 (718,000)
March 11th: AEW 0.26 (766,000 viewers), NXT 0.21 (697,000)
March 18th: AEW 0.35 (932,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (542,000)
March 25th: AEW 0.34 (819,000 viewers), NXT 0.20 (669,000)
April 1: AEW 0.25 (685,000 viewers), NXT 0.15 (590,000)
April 8: AEW 0.26 (692,000 viewers), NXT 0.19 (693,000)
April 15: AEW 0.25 (683,000 viewers), NXT 0.17 (692,000)
April 22: AEW 0.25 (731,000 viewers), NXT 0.18 (665,000)
April 29: AEW 0.27 (693,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (637,000)
May 6: AEW 0.28 (732,000 viewers), NXT 0.18 (663,000)
May 13: AEW 0.23 (654,000 viewers), NXT 0.15 (604,000)
May 20: AEW 0.26 (701,000 viewers), NXT 0.13 (592,000)
May 27: AEW 0.32 (821,000 viewers), NXT 0.19 (731,000)
June 3: AEW 0.29 (730,000 viewers), NXT 0.20 (715,000)
June 10: AEW 0.23 (677,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (673,000)
June 17: AEW 0.28 (772,000 viewers), NXT 0.20 (746,000)
June 24: AEW 0.22 (633,000 viewers), NXT 0.19 (786,000)
July 1: AEW 0.29 (748,000 viewers), NXT 0.22 (792,000)
July 8: AEW 0.28 (715,000 viewers), NXT 0.20 (759,000)
July 15: AEW 0.29 (788,000 viewers), NXT 0.14 (631,000)
July 22: AEW 0.32 (845,000 viewers), NXT 0.17 (615,000)
July 29: AEW 0.30 (773,000 viewers), NXT 0.18 (707,000)
August 5: AEW 0.36 (901,000 viewers), NXT 0.20 (753,000)
August 12: AEW 0.32 (792,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (619,000)
August 19: AEW N/A, NXT 0.24 (853,000)
August 22: AEW 0.31 (755,000 viewers), NXT N/A
August 26: AEW N/A, NXT 0.24 (824,000)
August 28: AEW 0.29 (813,000 viewers), NXT N/A
September 1: AEW N/A, NXT 0.26, (849,000)
September 2: AEW 0.36 (928,000 viewers), NXT 0.04, (183,000)
September 8: AEW N/A, NXT 0.22 (838,000)
September 9: AEW 0.37 (1.016 million viewers), NXT N/A
September 16: AEW 0.34 (886,000 viewers), NXT 0.18 (689,000)
September 22: AEW 0.26 (585,000 viewers), NXT N/A
September 23: AEW 0.32 (835,000 viewers), NXT 0.18 (696,000)
September 30: AEW 0.33 (866,000 viewers), NXT 0.19 (732,000)
October 7: AEW 0.31 (753,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (639,000)
October 14: AEW 0.30 (826,000 viewers), NXT 0.17 (651,000)
October 21: AEW 0.30 (753,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (644,000)
October 28: AEW 0.31 (781,000 viewers), NXT 0.25 (876,000)
November 4: AEW 0.30 (717,000 viewers), NXT 0.14 (610,000)
November 11: AEW 0.30 (764,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (632,000)
November 18: AEW 0.37 (850,000 viewers), NXT 0.14 (638,000)
November 25: AEW 0.26 (710,000 viewers), NXT 0.20 (712,000)
December 2nd: AEW 0.42 (913,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (658,000)
December 9nd: AEW 0.45 (995,000 viewers), NXT 0.17 (659,000)
December 16th: AEW 0.32 (806,000 viewers), NXT 0.19 (766,000)
December 23th: AEW 0.32 (775,000 viewers), NXT 0.19 (698,000)
December 30th: AEW 0.40 (977,000 viewers), NXT 0.12 (586,000)
January 6th: AEW 0.25 (662,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (641,000)
January 13th: AEW 0.30 (762,000 viewers), NXT 0.14 (551,000)
January 20th: AEW 0.36 (854,000 viewers), NXT 0.15 (659,000)
January 27th: AEW 0.29 (754,000 viewers), NXT 0.21 (720,000)
February 3rd: AEW 0.32 (844,000 viewers), NXT 0.15 (610,000)
February 10th: AEW 0.29 (741,000 viewers), NXT 0.12 (558,000)
February 17th: AEW 0.31 (747,000 viewers), NXT 0.16 (713,000)
February 24th: AEW 0.35 (831,000 viewers), NXT 0.18 (734,000)
March 3rd: AEW 0.33 (934,000 viewers), NXT 0.20 (692,000)
March 10rd: AEW 0.32 (743,000 viewers), NXT 0.18 (691,000)
March 17rd: AEW 0.28 (768,000 viewers), NXT 0.13 (597,000)
March 24rd: AEW 0.30 (757,000 viewers), NXT 0.14 (678,000)
March 31rd: AEW 0.26 (700,000 viewers), NXT 0.21 (654,000)
April 7th: AEW 0.28 (688,000 viewers), NXT 0.22 (768,000)