Ratings Breakdown For This Past Week’s AEW Dynamite and Collision

As previously reported, last Saturday’s AEW Collision had its lowest viewership to date against NXT No Mercy with 327,000 viewers. It was also up in the key 18-49 rating, which was 0.08 (106,000 viewers). It also had an 0.06 in 18-34. Meanwhile, thanks partially to errors with the TV listings, AEW Dynamite fell in viewership, getting 800,000 viewers, while holding steady in 18-49 with an 0.28 in 18-49 (364,000 viewers). It also had an 0.25 in 18-34, up from last week. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has more details on the numbers for both shows, including a look at each individual quarter hour.

As noted, WWE seems to be Collision’s kryptonite in Saturdays. The show performs consistently when there is not a WWE PPV (even against college football), but when there is, the numbers drop significantly. In this case, NXT No Mercy dropped the show to an all-time low. The men 18-49 demographic took a huge hit, dropping 64.4%. The show also wasn’t helped by the boxing PPV with Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo, which was also that night.

Other competition that night (although competition Collision has been performing well against in past weeks) included Notre Dame vs. Duke on ABC (5,324,000/1.20), LSU vs. Mississippi on ESPN (3,722,000/0.99), Michigan State vs. Iowa on NBC (2,170,000/0.39), Iowa State vs. Oklahoma on FS 1 (808,000/0.20), West Virginia vs. Texas Christian on ESPN 2 (739,000/0.18), and baseball on FOX (1,680,000/0.34). Again, the sports competition was even stronger last week and didn’t cut into Collision’s numbers, so the likely culprit was the WWE/boxing one-two punch.

Collision was #33 for the night and #9 in its time slot. Compared to last week, it was down 41.8% in viewers, down 54.9% in 18-49 and down 48.8% in 18-34. The show had 30,000 (down 58.3%) in males 18-34, 14,000 (up 16.7%) in women 18-34, 32,000 (down 68.6%) in men 35-49 and 31,000 (down 36.7%) in women 35-49. The audience was 57.5% male in 18-49.

Q1: Andrade el Idolo vs. Juice Robinson – 411,000 viewers, 151,000 in 18-49
Q2: End of Andrade vs. Juice/Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega promo/Toni Storm promo/Best Friends vs. The Kingdom – 358,000 viewers (down 53,000), 117,000 in 18-49 (down 34,000)
Q3: End of Best Friends vs. Kingdom/Prince Nana promo – 314,000 viewers (down 44,000), 108,000 in 18-49 (down 9,000)
Q4: Julia Hart vs. Vertvixen/Josh Barnett & Claudio Castagnoli video/Jericho & Omega vs. Gates of Agony – 394,000 viewers (up 80,000), 120,000 in 18-49 (up 12,000)
Q5: End of Jericho & Omega vs. Gates of Agony – 323,000 viewers (down 71,000), 100,000 in 18-49 (down 20,000)
Q6: The Righteous video/Christian & Darby Allin video/The Righteous squash match/Eddie Kingston & Katsuyori Shibata video – 268,000 viewers (down 55,000), 78,000 in 18-49 (down 22,000)
Q7: TMDK & Acclaimed segment/Bryan Danielson, Wheeler Yuta & FTR vs. Ricky Starks, Big Bill & Aussie Open – 266,000 viewers (down 2,000), 84,000 in 18-49 (up 6,000)
Q8: End of Danelson, Yuta & FTR vs. Starks, Bill & Aussie Open – 280,000 viewers (up 14,000), 91,000 in 18-49 (up 7,000)
Overrun: Post-match brawl & Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr hype – 315,000 viewers (up 35,000), 105,000 in 18-49 (up 14,000)

Dynamite had its 4th anniversary show and the TV debut of Adam Copeland, which should have guaranteed higher numbers, but it was actually down. This is partly due to DVR errors with TBS, something that Tony Khan and AEW knew about before the show even aired and attempted to warn fans about. The listing had the show scheduled for that afternoon rather than its proper time. Those who didn’t make changes ended up recording episodes of Young Sheldon instead of AEW. However, while this may have caused some errors, those errors can mostly be attributed to the Live+3 and Live+7 numbers, which are not out yet. The effect on Dynamite’s live viewers wouldn’t have been huge since the error is for those who tape or watch later. The timeframe counted for Wednesday live numbers is up to 3 AM ET. The show’s only major competition for the night was MLB wildcard games.

Dynamite was #6 for the night and #3 in its timeslot. It was behind the Miami vs. Philadelphia wildcard game on ESPN (3,238,000/0.85) on ESPN and Milwaukee vs. Arizona on ESPN 2 (1,952,000/0.45). That night’s Survivor (on network TV) had 4,879,000/0.78.

The viewership was the lowest since May 3, and marked the first time that NXT beat AEW in viewership since NXT moved to Tuesdays. Dynamite did still win in the key 18-49 demographic, as well as 18-34, but NXT also won in the 50+ demo.

Compared to last week, Dynamite was down 6.4% in viewers, down 0.3% in 18-49 and up 35.7% in 18-34. Compared to last year, it was down 22.9% in viewers, down 15.3% in 18-49 and up 13.6% in 18-34. It had 123,000 in men 18-34 (up 48.2%), 52,000 in women 18-34 (up 13%), 132,000 in men 35-49 (down 21.9%) and 57,000 in women 35-49 (down 14.9%). The audience was 70.1% male in 18-49.

Q1: Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega & Adam Copeland segment/Rey Fenix vs. Nick Jackson – 804,000 viewers, 321,000 in 18-49
Q2: End of Fenix vs. Jackson/The Kingdom, Roderick Strong & Adam Cole segment (no sound)/Wardlow vs. Griff Garrison – 788,000 viewers (down 16,000), 352,000 in 18-49 (up 31,000)
Q3: Don Callis & Konosuke Takeshita promo/Roderick Strong & Adam Cole segment (sound)/The Acclaimed & Daddy Ass vs. The Butcher, The Blade & Kip Sabian – 715,000 viewers (down 73,000), 326,000 in 18-49 (down 26,000)
Q4: Bullet Club Gold & MJF segment – 796,000 viewers (up 81,000), 387,000 in 18-49 (up 61,000)
Q5: End of MJF & Bullet Club Gold segment/Orange Cassidy & HOOK promo/Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher – 849,000 viewers (up 53,000), 392,000 in 18-49 (up 5,000)
Q6: End of Omega & Jericho vs. Takeshita & Fletcher/Powerhouse Hobbs attacks – 819,000 viewers (down 30,000), 372,000 in 18-49 (down 20,000)
Q7: MJF & The Acclaimed segment/Samoa Joe video/Toni Storm vs. Skye Blue – 795,000 viewers (down 24,000), 361,000 in 18-49 (down 11,000)
Q8: End of Storm vs. Blue/Adam Copeland promo – 809,000 viewers (up 14,000), 379,000 in 18-49 (up 18,000)
Overrun: End of Copeland promo with Christian Cage – 852,000 viewers (up 43,000), 401,000 in 18-49 (up 22,000)