WWE NXT Destroys AEW Dynamite Anniversary Show in Ratings & Viewership
This week’s numbers are in and they spell disaster for AEW! (bit of Scott Steiner there) Last night, October 2, 2024, AEW Dynamite held their 5th Anniversary show, while WWE NXT made their CW Network debut the previous night, Tuesday, October 1st.
680,000 households tuned in for AEW Dynamite, down from last week’s 702,000. NXT averaged a whopping 895,000 households, an increase of 44% from the last episode on the USA Network.
NXT also posted a 0.26 rating in the all-important 18-49 demographic, a big jump from last week’s 0.19 number. In the same key demo, AEW Dynamite drew a 0.20 rating, down from 0.23 last week.
One of those good news/bad news situations, more like great news for WWE. Very bad news for AEW, who did get a new TV deal, but last night had Danielson/Okada & Ricochet/Ospreay!
If that didn’t draw, what could? They just burnt two television matches that could have main-evented Pay-Per-Views.
I mentioned the TV deal, which I’m sure you’ve read about already. Fans are loving it and good for them, I hope they stay on TV for a long time.
But not many are looking at it realistically, only Eric Bischoff and a few others I’ve seen. Here is what he said a few weeks back, courtesy of WrestlingInc
“Oh, this deal is going to make them profitable. How do we know that? Has anybody looked at AEW expenses? Anybody who's reporting, as just about anybody does, it's kind of just thrown in there as a comment 'Oh, this deal's going to make them profitable.' Well, how does anybody know?
Does anybody know what the talent budget is? I've never seen that. Does anybody know how much it costs AEW to actually produce a show? I've never seen anybody talk about that."
Eric Bischoff
According to PWInsider, “CW is thrilled with the rating earned by NXT. The report points to the show beating out other top programs on the network, saying CW would have been happy even with a lower rating”
AEW Dynamite airs live Wednesdays at 8PM ET on the TBS Network.
Credit: PWTorch & PWI
