AEW's Anniversary Show draws 826,000 viewers, #15 on cable

Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/15/aews-anniversary-show-draws-826000-viewers-15-on-cable/

The anniversary edition of AEW Dynamite featuring four title matches saw the show average 826,000 viewers and finish 15th among cable programming with a 0.30 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which was down 3 percent from last week.

While the show was up from last week’s number of 735,000 viewers, it’s unfair to compare to last week given the sizable audience that watched the Vice-Presidential Debate last week involving Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.

In Canada, AEW Dynamite averaged 81,600 viewers on TSN2 and was the fifth most-watched sports broadcast Wednesday night. They were behind the Major League Baseball playoff games, which counted as three programs because both SportsnetOne and Sportsnet National carried the Tampa Bay vs. Houston game along with the Los Angeles vs. Atlanta game. There was also a Major League Soccer game that topped AEW for the fourth spot on the sports charts. Dynamite did 55,600 in the 25-54 demographic.

For the second week in a row, NXT failed to crack the top fifty cable programs finishing at #51 with 651,000 viewers and a 0.17 rating in the 18-49 demographic. NXT’s audience increased by 2 percent and the demo rating was up 6.25 percent. Due to NXT’s ranking on the Showbuzz Daily chart, we don’t have detailed information for all the demographics.

AEW saw several significant shifts this week with a 35 percent increase among adults over 50, and a 20 percent improvement among males 12-34. Their largest loss was felt with females 12-34 that dropped by 37.5 percent this week to a 0.10 rating. Females 18-49 also fell 14 percent.

If you discard last week’s number due to the debate, this would be AEW’s lowest Wednesday number since August 12th but did finish above the episodes that aired on Saturday, August 22nd, and Thursday, August 27th when TNT shifted nights for the program.

There was significantly less competition this week without the debate, but also without the NBA playoffs to contend with. AEW and NXT did go against the Major League Baseball playoffs with the conclusion of the L.A. Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves game that did 2,094,000 viewers and the Tampa Bay Rays vs. Houston Astros game that began at 8:30 pm Eastern and topped the cable charts with 2,719,000 viewers and a 0.68 rating in the 18-49 demo. Cable news numbers were high on Wednesday with coverage of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

On network television, the big winner was FOX with The Masked Singer doing 6,490,000 viewers and a 1.7 demo number on the overnight figures.

Here is a comparison of AEW Dynamite’s numbers from last week:

Source: Showbuzz Daily

ADULTS 18-49
AEW: 0.30 (-3 percent)
NXT: 0.17 (+6.25 percent)

FEMALES 18-49
AEW: 0.18 (-14 percent)

MALES 18-49
AEW: 0.41 (Even)

ADULTS 18-34
AEW: 0.18 (Even)

FEMALES 12-34
AEW: 0.10 (-37.5 percent)

MALES 12-34
AEW: 0.18 (+20 percent)

ADULTS 25-54
AEW: 0.35 (Even)

ADULTS 50+
AEW: 0.35 (+35 percent)

I genuinely think AEW were hoping to crack a million with this show especially as NXT didn’t put anything big up. What happened last week that convinced a lot of women/girls to skip possibly AEW’s biggest show since their debut?

They turned 13?