AEW Dynamite finishes #4 on cable, falls under one million viewers

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Originally published at AEW Dynamite finishes #4 on cable, falls under one million viewers

AEW Dynamite returned to its regular night with the show finishing fourth among cable originals while dipping beneath one million viewers.

The October 27th episode from Boston averaged 975,000 viewers and 518,000 (0.40) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.

Excluding the two recent episodes on Saturday night, it was the first time Dynamite fell under one million viewers since August 18th and was the show’s lowest average viewership since July 7th.

The 18-49 number held up much stronger as it topped the October 6th edition, which was their last episode on Wednesday night that did 480,000 in the demo.

The key sports competition that AEW faced was Game 2 of the World Series between Houston and Atlanta that did 10,280,000 on Fox and the NBA game between Atlanta and New Orleans that finished third on cable with 1,024,000 viewers and 0.41 in 18-49 (just edging out Dynamite for the third spot and behind the late NBA game on ESPN and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills).

Over the previous four episodes of Dynamite that aired on Wednesday, the show had averaged 1,163,000 and 567,000 (0.44) in 18-49.

Of note, is that this week’s episode included the show airing live across the country including those in the Pacific and Mountain time zones, instead of airing staggered for an optimal viewing time for those time zones. It was expected this would have a minor effect due to the show airing so early in those time zones. This change was made to accommodate TNT’s coverage of NHL hockey.

When comparing with the Wednesday, October 6 episode, this week’s episode was up in all demos monitored by Showbuzz Daily except for Adults 50+ (0.45 to 0.34 this week) and Males 12-34 (0.26 to 0.23).

In Canada, Dynamite averaged 90,000 viewers and 48,000 in the 25-54 demo on TSN 2.

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Any idea how much of this is bc of the west coast effect ?

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I think as of next week, things will get back to normal with viewership.

The bouncing around the last few weeks through a lot of people off. I know myself, I didn’t realize there was an episode on Wednesday, until Monday. Having missed the last two Saturday night shows, my habits were thrown off.

I feel like with the road to Full Gear picking up steam, and consistent Wednesday nights again, people will jump back on.

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Maybe. I know personally after that makn event on Wednesday I won’t be tuning in for a while. I’ll probably come back at some point, but I’m definitely going to be out until the next pay-per-view cycle. That just killed any interest I had in Omega vs Page and at one point I had to ask myself if I was really wasting time watching these guys play ghostbusters in the middle of a title build.

I wish AEW well and you may well be right that fans will tune back in, but I’m curious if there are people more like me who are still technically in the demo albeit on the higher end who are just going to be turned off because of some of these antics.

Time will tell.

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I can see your point, but I don’t think anything about the match was as bad as you’re making it out to be. Having gone back to watch now.

The Elite are childish assholes. That’s their schitck. They were being their characters on a Halloween show. The match was a fun brawl, and furthered the Hangman / Omega feud within the world of last night’s show.

As John said last night - if suddenly everybody was selling the effects of non-existent blasts from proton packs it would be one thing. However, thats not what happened.

I really believe we will see a heated build, much more to your liking, over the next couple of weeks. Especially since Hangman has gotten over on The Elite several times now, and I don’t think we will head into the PPV with that being the case.

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Shush Alex!!! If they book X and Bryan you’ll be back faster than a Queens Crown tournament match.

I want a dollar for every time you say you’re out and then come back for X dream match :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Hahaha yeah another Bryan dream match and I’m back

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We shall see. You might be right in the remote matter.

I know for me unless something amazing is announced that makes me today and I’m gonna be out at least until the next set of storylines after the pay-per-view. That was enough for me to not want to waste time seeing something like that. It just seemed really bad comedy that wasn’t funny and was annoying and silly. I don’t like silly. Maybe it’s just me.

This is happened to me before. There was a time where I tuned out of AEW for about six months because it was getting silly. Coincidentally the ratings dropped during this time as well. After that they started to rise and I really only came back once they announced Bryan and Punk which was when the ratings took off.

I’m not saying that I mimic the masses at all, but I’m guessing as I’m not a totally unreasonable person that if certain things turn me off they might turn others off as well. I’m not sure anyone watching that is going to think it was great. You may not hate it, but I don’t think it’s going to attract new fans. Whether it turns off existing ones remains to be seen.

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I had a day off today so listened to the pods.

I appreciate @wai0937 and @johnpollock take on it.

Totally agree with them - it was over to crowd and supposed to be a fun Halloween show and not a PPV. It will likely get serious in coming weeks. I was probably too harsh bc I guess I’m not really in a fun mood most of the time and probably not a fun guy lol.

I afterwards listed to WON and Bryan agreed with them but interestingly Dave agreed more with my take.

I think it was polarizing but tend now to lean more towards what the guys said in that it wasn’t supposed to be a serious show and it was fun for the crowd.

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@Alex_Patel pls catch the Smackdown Halloween match and if you’d be so kind a compare and contrast of the two. I would love to know how you juxtapose them

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I haven’t watched a full episode of SmackDown or Raw in over 15 years. I certainly don’t intend to now. I’m sure it was way worse than AEW.

Like I said this isn’t a comparison – AEW is leagues ahead of these guys. It’s just at times I find it too silly and that turns me off. I was hoping more for something and NJPW style in North America. Closer to the old NXT which is been my favourite wrestling in about 20 years.

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It was stupid random shit and none of it got much of a reaction because none of the guys were over and there was no story being told. Plunder match treated as a joke, no comparison to what AEW did.

Commentary was also horrendous for the match

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Totally disagree. While not even close to what AEW did, that match was the best thing on SmackDown, because Corbin and Moss are hilarious. Also, I thought commentary was hilarious in that match too.

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I actually liked Shotzi and Charlotte - there may have been some botches but it was at least fresh. This (Halloween street fight) was the same match they do every year but copy and paste different wrestlers.

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It was a good match, but it made no fucking sense turning Shotzi heel. For someone who has barely been on tv, she was getting a great reaction and then they go and ruin it after the match.

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Don’t disagree there, that made absolutely no sense.

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It’s possible the positive reception for Shotzi caught them by surprise. The writers probably aren’t used to their young stars getting babyface reactions because it doesn’t always work that way in the WWE Universe. Now that the WWE brass can see her getting over with live crowds, they may change course and give her the babyface treatment (get rid of the tank and green hair, losses, embarrassing promos, etc).

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Lmao. You think the WWE brass will change their mind based on a crowd reaction?

Lol needed a good laugh

These are the same idiots that held Bryan out of a RR and got fans to boo Rey Mysterio thinking even one person the planet wanted to see Bautista vs Orton

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It was the only thing that kept me on FS1. PatMac is absolutely electric.

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I’m pretty sure most of you don’t listen to Jim Cornette but if you catch the YouTube video he discusses the match. Both him and Brian Last have an extremely negative take on it (not surprising)

What was most interesting to hear was how disappointed he was an Adam Cole for participating in a match like this. He literally apologized for ever endorsing Cole and sounded legitimately hurt.

Given that Dynamite is tonight I’m really curious if last weeks match turns off people so they don’t watch. I know for me I’m not gonna watch this week because I don’t really feel like it and am working late. I totally understand that it was a fun Halloween episode and not a ppv. After listening to some of the commentary from you guys and our podcast I have softened my stance on it, but it’s still not enough to want me to watch the product right now.

Anyway you slice it was clearly polarizing – it’s probably the first negative thing I’ve heard Melzer say about AEW in quite a while. I know some people loved it, but I’m curious how many people didn’t like me and are turned off. I suspect not many because I think I’m in the minority but it will be interesting to see.

There’s also way less buzz about this upcoming pay-per-view. That was to be expected of course given all the debuts, and I don’t think even the most optimistic fan thinks it’ll come close to the last buyrate. However I guess the question would be how much lower it is.

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