More on AEW Week 106 Viewership, NXT Week 107 Viewership – Oct. 19, 2021, AEW Rampage Week 10

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for October 16th

The October 16th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW suffer a large decline in both overall viewership and key demographic ratings. That week’s episode was notable for airing on a Saturday due to AEW being preempted on TNT for NHL coverage.

AEW drew 727,000 viewers and a 0.28 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that night was 9th place.

Detailed demographic and quarter-hours breakdowns were not available in this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Dave Meltzer reported that despite AEW’s large declines for that week’s episode, it was also higher than the last time an AEW Dynamite show was preempted and aired on a Saturday instead. The Saturday, October 14, 2020 episode of Dynamite drew 826,000 viewers and a 0.21 key demographic rating. In regards to AEW’s decline for the week, Meltzer reported that the main reason was due to very stiff sports competition and its much lower than usual male key demographic viewership, overall 35-49 viewership, and Teenagers viewership, all which were down by over 28% each.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the MLB Playoffs NLCS Game 1 of Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves drew 4,668,000 viewers on TBS and the College Football game of Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Mississippi State Bulldogs drew 3,526,000 viewers on ESPN.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 389,000 viewers. All four of AEW’s key demographic groups were down with the biggest being their Males 35-49 group at 30.7% lower than the prior week’s show.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was down 3.5% in overall viewership and down 5.9% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that despite the drop in overall key demographic viewership, that week’s show was also up 29.5% in the overall 18-34 viewership group compared to the same week last year.

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More on WWE NXT Viewership for October 19th

The October 19th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a small decline in both overall viewership and key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 606,000 viewers and a 0.14 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 29th place.

Detailed demographic and quarter-hours breakdowns were not available in this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Dave Meltzer reported that the main reason for NXT’s decline this week was due to stiff sports competition that night and its much lower than usual overall females key demographic viewership and Teenagers viewership, which were down 22% and 28.6% respectively compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Brooklyn Nets vs. Milwaukee Bucks drew 2,161,000 viewers on TNT, the NHL game of New York Islanders vs. Chicago Blackhawks drew 558,000 viewers on ESPN, and the MLB Playoffs ALCS Game 4 of Houston Astros vs. Boston Red Sox drew 4,141,000 viewers on FS1.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 189,000 viewers.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 6.9% in overall viewership and down 7.8% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that despite the drop in overall key demographic viewership, this week’s show was also up 11.1% in the overall 18-34 viewership group compared to the same week last year.

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More on AEW Rampage Viewership for October 15th

The October 15th episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW gain a large increase in both overall viewership and key demographic ratings. That week’s show was notable for being the first time ever that an AEW Rampage show went head-to-head against a WWE SmackDown show, albeit only for the first 30 minutes.

AEW Rampage drew 578,000 viewers and a 0.24 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for this week’s show was 4th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW Rampage’s increase that week was due to the very large gains made with their overall 18-34 viewership, which was 153.6% higher in their Males 18-34 group and 84% higher in their Females 18-34 group compared to the prior week’s show. In terms of viewership age skews, Meltzer reported that Rampage was the youngest skewing sports show for that week, followed by two NHL games, the USA vs. Costa Rica World Cup 2022 qualifier soccer game, and AEW Dynamite to round out the top five.

In terms of head-to-head sports competition, the College Football game of Clemson Tigers vs. Syracuse Orange drew 2,115,000 viewers on ESPN and the College Football game of California Golden Bears vs. Oregon Ducks drew 1,446,000 viewers on ESPN.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 313,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest increase was with their Males 18-34 at 153.6% higher than the prior week’s show. AEW’s sole decrease was with their Females 34-49 group at 2.2% lower than the prior week’s show.

In an interesting note, the second quarter hour of Rampage’s show that week featured a tie in the key demographic viewership with WWE’s extended SmackDown show that week at 293,000 viewers each. WWE’s show featured the final 30 minutes being commercial free while only the first quarter of AEW’s Rampage show was commercial free as a counter. Meltzer reported that when factoring out the commercial break time, AEW’s numbers were 628,000 for overall viewership and 327,000 for key demographic viewership for Rampage’s second quarter hour.

AEW Rampage started off with around 663,000 viewers and had around 541,000 viewers for its second quarter, around 550,000 viewers for its third quarter, and around 558,000 viewers for its main event quarter featuring Junior Dos Santos & Men of the Year vs. The Inner Circle 6-Man Tag Team match.