AEW Dynamite Sees Slight Drop in Ratings & Viewership for Move to Saturday Night, Still Ranks in Top 5

– Hopefully, this won’t be too confusing. As previously noted, AEW Dynamite was preempted on Wednesday night due to TNT’s coverage of the NBA playoffs, so the show aired at 6:00 pm EST on Saturday night on the network instead. As a result, the ratings for Saturday’s show weren’t available until now. ShowBuzz Daily now has the Saturday night cable ratings and viewership numbers.

The early Saturday edition of Dynamite drew 755,000 viewers. That accounts for a loss of about 37,000 viewers from the August 12 episode, which drew 792,000 viewers for its overnight audience.

In terms of the key P18-49 key demo ratings, AEW Dynamite drew a 0.31 rating. That’s down slightly from the 0.32 rating for August 12. This week’s episode also drew a 0.21 rating in the 18-34 demo and 0.25 in the 50+ demo.

All in all, Dynamite didn’t lose a ton of ground due to the preemption last week, which is good, since the show was airing on a new night and an earlier time. Not to mention, the show had stiff competition with ESPN’s UFC Fight Night: Edgar vs. Munhoz broadcast. That show finished with a 0.32 rating in the same key demo and 869,000 viewers.

Additionally, while Dynamite was not running directly against NXT on the USA Network, NXT TakeOver XXX was airing during the second half of Dynamite on the WWE Network.

For comparison’s sake, Wednesday night’s (Aug. 19) episode of NXT TV on the USA Network, which was running unopposed to Dynamite, drew a higher overnight audience last week with 853,000 viewers. However, the key demo rating was still lower at 0.24.

In terms of the Cable Top 150 rankings, AEW Dynamite finished at No. 5 for the evening. On August 12, the show only placed No. 9 in the Top 10. Granted, that was for Wednesday night when the show aired at a later time and was running against NXT.

The NBA Playoffs game between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder on ESPN topped the ratings for the evening with a 0.67 rating in the key demo. The show drew 1.757 million viewers. Meanwhile, Justice With Judge Jeanine topped the viewership for the night with 2.737 million viewers.

This week will be interesting to see how things play out yet again. NXT will be running unopposed on Wednesday night, and AEW Dynamite is scheduled to air on Thursday, Aug. 27 this week at 8:00 pm EST. But it doesn’t stop there. NXT’s weekly show will be switching nights on September 1 due to the NHL playoffs on the USA Network. This means AEW Dynamite will be running unopposed when it returns to its normal night on Wednesday, September 2.

Here are the week-by-week AEW-NXT Wednesday Night War numbers, including last Saturday’s numbers for Dynamite:

October 2nd: AEW 0.68 demo rating (1.409 million viewers), NXT 0.32 demo rating (891,000 viewers)
October 9th: AEW 0.46 (1.018 million viewers), NXT 0.22 (790,000 viewers)
October 16th: AEW 0.44 (1.014 million viewers), NXT 0.20 (712,000 viewers)
October 23rd: AEW 0.45 (963,000 viewers), NXT 0.21 (698,000 viewers)
October 30th: AEW 0.33 (759,000 viewers), NXT 0.18 (580,000 viewers)
November 6th: AEW 0.35 (822,000 viewers), NXT 0.30 (813,000 viewers)
November 13th: AEW 0.43 (957,000 viewers), NXT 0.25 (750,000 viewers)
November 20th: AEW 0.39 (893,000 viewers), NXT 0.30 (916,000 viewers)
November 27th: AEW 0.26 (663,000 viewers), NXT 0.24 (818,000 viewers)
December 4th: AEW 0.32 (851,000 viewers), NXT 0.29 (845,000 viewers)
December 11th: AEW 0.28 (778,000 viewers), NXT 0.24 (778,000 viewers)
December 18th: AEW 0.25 (683,000 viewers), NXT 0.27 (795,000 viewers)
December 25th: AEW N/A, NXT 0.22 (831,000 viewers)
January 1st: AEW 0.36 (967,000 viewers), NXT 0.15 (548,000)
January 8th: AEW 0.36 (947,000 viewers), NXT 0.19 (721,000)
January 15th: AEW 0.38 (940,000 viewers), NXT 0.21 (700,000)
January 22nd: AEW 0.35 (871,000 viewers), NXT 0.24 (769,000)
January 29nd: AEW 0.34 (828,000 viewers), NXT 0.22 (712,000)
February 5th: AEW 0.36 (928,000 viewers), NXT 0.22 (770,000)
February 12th: AEW 0.30 (817,000 viewers), NXT 0.24 (757,000)
February 19th: AEW 0.31 (893,000 viewers), NXT 0.25 (794,000)
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