Originally published at AEW Rampage sees second hour decline, tops cable for Friday
The special two-hour edition of AEW Rampage from Arthur Ashe Stadium saw the show finish as the top cable program on Friday.
The September 24th edition of Rampage averaged 640,000 viewers and 376,000 (0.29) in the 18-49 demographic, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
Showbuzz Daily broke down each hour with Rampage averaging 727,000 viewers and 0.32 in the first hour and dropping to 552,000 and 0.25 in the second hour. The drop in total viewers from the first to the second hour was 24 percent while the decline in 18-49 was 23 percent.
The second hour clearly dragged the overall number down. The numbers for the first hour would have been Rampage’s third-highest overall viewership for the series behind “The First Dance” and the premiere episode. Combining both hours, Rampage had its lowest viewership as it was slightly below last week’s figure of 642,000. The overall 18-49 beat out the previous two editions of Rampage.
The first hour of Rampage included CM Punk’s first match on television since January 2014 and the big six-man tag with The Young Bucks & Adam Cole vs. Christian Cage, Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus. The second hour was highlighted by the Unsanctioned Lights Out match with Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer vs. Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston.
The show saw increases with males 18-49 (0.37 to 0.44) and males 12-34 (0.13 to 0.18) while females 18-49 dropped (0.19 to 0.15) from the previous week’s episode.
Even with the second hour factored in, Rampage won the night on cable edging out Gold Rush on Discovery, which did 0.28 in the 18-49 demographic. Rampage was #1 with males 18-49 by a strong margin and finished #2 among adults 18-34.