Warner Bros. Discovery Reportedly ‘Happy’ With This Week’s AEW Dynamite Numbers, Address Audio Issues

– As previously noted, some of the decrease in viewership for this week’s AEW Dynamite is being attributed to the unusual airtime for Dynamite on TBS this week, with the show airing live coast-to-coast instead of the usual delay in the west coast feed. It was later reported that AEW officials were not shocked by the drop due to the broadcast change. PWInsider released an additional update with an information taken from a source at AEW broadcast partner Warner Bros. Discovery.

According to the individual from WBD, internally, the network was “really happy” with this week’s numbers for Dynamite and also noted the various obstacles for this week’s Dynamite that were out of AEW’s hands, such as altered broadcast time and the audio issues during the broadcast. The show drew an average audience of 683,000 viewers with an 0.23 rating in the key demo. The WBD source also noted that AEW had heavy competition this week from the NBA and NHL Playoffs both going on, and AEW still ranked sixth for the night for cable original programming.

Three of the shows that were higher than Dynamite comprised the NBA coverage on TNT, which is internally considered to be in the same broadcast family as WBD. The source also stated that when those shows were removed, only NHL Playoff coverage on ESPN ranked higher than Dynamite on Wednesday, with Dynamite still ranking higher than all the other original cable programming on Wednesday in the key ratings demo.

The individual with WBD also addressed the issues with the west coast feed not airing at 8:00 pm PST due to the NBA Playoff coverage, along with the audio issues on TBS. According to the WBD source, the audio issues with AEW Dynamite on TBS were the result of the “TBS uplink itself,” and they were reportedly not caused on AEW’s end. These issues were out of AEW’s control. As a result, WBD was “good” with this week’s numbers when they came in. They also expect them to improve when factoring in +3 and +7 viewings through DVR and more.