Originally published at AEW Dynamite posts highest numbers in months in U.S. and Canada
Despite going against the Winter Olympics, AEW Dynamite had its most-watched episode of the program since last September and was the top program on cable.
The February 8th edition of the show from Atlantic City averaged 1,129,000 viewers and approximately 541,000 (0.41) in the 18-49 demographic, first reported by Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.
It was the top show on cable for Wednesday ahead of both NBA games on ESPN, the USA Network’s coverage of the Olympics, and South Park, per Showbuzz Daily.
NBC’s coverage of the Olympics averaged 9,787,000 viewers and 1.81 in 18-49 beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
It was Dynamite’s highest overall viewership since the September 29th edition of the show last year and their best figure on TBS since last month’s move. It was their third-highest 18-49 audience on TBS behind the debut show on January 5th and the January 19th edition.
It was a strong rebound after last week’s episode from Chicago posted the show’s lowest numbers on TBS. Viewership grew 18.3 percent from last week while the 18-49 demo improved by 19 percent.
The most interesting demographic was the 18-34 category. Overall, the demo was up by 5 percent as it was a major hit with males in the category showing an increase of 49 percent from last week. However, females in the demo had a stark decline of 46 percent dropping to 38,000 this week, according to Thurston.
Dynamite posted a 25 percent increase among adults 35-49, which was bolstered by females jumping 67 percent this week from 76,000 to 127,000.
It was impressive given the competition from the Winter Olympics, that hurt both Raw and NXT 2.0 this week, although the WWE programming was also impacted by a change in networks, which AEW didn’t have to deal with.
It was also great news for AEW with their Canadian viewership. Unlike the U.S., they did move from its regular station of TSN 2 over to TSN 5 because of the Olympics yet still managed to average 155,300 viewers – the highest in Canada since December 1, 2021. The show also attracted 97,300 viewers in the 25-54 demo in Canada.