AEW Winter Is Coming Sees Viewership Increase Over 900,000, Ratings Drop in Key Demo

– Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston has the overnight ratings for last night’s Winter Is Coming edition of AEW Dynamite. Last night’s show was the second annual AEW Winter Is Coming special. The show featured Hangman Page defending his AEW World Championship against top contender Bryan Danielson in a match that went a full 60 minutes and ultimately ended in a time-limit draw. It was the longest match in AEW history to date. While viewership saw a significant increase this week, ratings in the key demo saw a drop to their lowest numbers since May 2021.

Winter Is Coming finished with an average overnight audience of 948,000 viewers. Viewership was up 9% from last week’s Long Island debut show, which drew 872,000 viewers.

In the P18-49 key ratings demographic, Winter Is Coming drew a 0.31 rating, or 398,000 viewers. That’s down 7% from last week’s rating in the key demo of 0.33. Per Thurston, this is the lowest viewership in the key demo for AEW Dynamite since May 19.

For comparison, last year’s Winter Is Coming special drew 995,000 viewers and a 0.45 rating in the key demo. The show ran head-to-head that night against WWE NXT on the USA Network, which drew 659,000 viewers and a 0.17 rating. Last year’s Winter Is Coming featured Kenny Omega defeating Jon Moxley to capture the AEW World Championship in the main event. The event took place on December 2, 2020.

Per Showbuzz Daily, AEW Winter Is Coming finished at No. 5 in the evening for cable originals, holding onto its No. 5 slot from last week. The NBA game between the LA Lakers and Dallas Mavericks on ESPN topped the ratings for Wednesday night with a 0.65.

Other shows that ranked ahead of Dynamite included another NBA game between the Clippers and the Jazz, The Challenge on MTV, and Real Housewives of OC on Bravo. Tucker Carlson Tonight on FOX News topped the viewership for Wednesday evening with 3.457 million viewers.

AEW Dynamite "Winter Is Coming" last night on TNT:

948,000 total viewers
P18-49 rating: 0.31 (398,000)

📊 More demos & analysis: https://t.co/qNAEpc2gwd pic.twitter.com/SUyZx4XLKr

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) December 16, 2021

That’s down 7% in P18-49 from last week and up 9% in total viewership.

Viewership in the 18 to 49 demo was the lowest for Dynamite since May 19.

Median age was 53, the first time it's been older than 50 since May.https://t.co/1SscdBCpr8

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) December 16, 2021