More on AEW & NXT Week 136 Viewership – May 17 & 18, 2022, AEW Rampage Week 40

May 21, 2022

More on WWE NXT Viewership for May 17th

The May 17th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain large increases in overall viewership, key demographic ratings, and key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 601,000 viewers and a 0.14 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 30th place.

Detailed viewership and key demographic breakdowns were not available in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Dave Meltzer reported that the main reason for NXT’s increases this week was due to the large gains from their overall key demographic viewership group, which was up 40% compared to last week’s show. Another reason was due to the very large gains from younger male key demographic viewership, which generated a 0.24 key demographic rating and the highest since October of 2021. This reportedly was enough to offset the very large decline in NXT’s younger female key demographic viewership, which generated a 0.05 rating and the lowest ever for a NXT show in NXT history on USA Network.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA 2022 Playoffs Game 1 of Boston Celtics vs. Miami Heat drew 6,070,000 viewers on ESPN, the NBA 2022 Draft Lottery drew 2,152,000 viewers on ESPN, the NHL 2022 Playoffs Game 1 of St. Louis Blues vs. Colorado Avalanche drew 1,196,000 viewers on TNT, the NHL 2022 Playoffs Game 1 of Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Florida Panthers drew 1,323,000 viewers on TNT, and Real Housewives of New Jersey drew 1,093,000 viewers on Bravo.

In terms of key demographic viewership, Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that NXT had 183,000 viewers.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 14.1% in overall viewership and down 6.7% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 key demographic viewership was up 14.3% compared to the same week last year.

More on AEW Dynamite Viewership for May 18th

The May 18th episode of AEW Dynamite saw AEW gain a very large increase in overall viewership but also suffered a slight decline in key demographic rankings.

AEW drew 922,000 viewers and a 0.33 key demographic rating on TBS. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that night was 7th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s mixed results this week was due to the very large gains from their Over 50 viewership group, which was up 18.8% compared to last week’s show and the main reason why AEW’s key demographic ranking declined compared to last week’s show. Another reason for AEW’s key demographic ranking declining this week was due to the gains from their younger key demographic viewership group, which was up 6.3%, was offset by the declines from their older key demographic viewership group, which was down 1.9%.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA 2022 Playoffs Game 1 of Dallas Mavericks vs. Golden State Warriors drew 6,518,000 viewers on TNT, the NHL 2022 Playoffs Game 1 of New York Rangers vs. Carolina Hurricanes drew 1,658,000 viewers on ESPN, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills drew 943,000 viewers on Bravo.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 431,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was up 19%, Females 18-34 was down 9.2%, Males 35-49 was down 3.2%, and Females 35-49 was up 3% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of the one million viewership milestone, none of AEW’s eight quarters averaged one million or more viewers. AEW’s peak was at 985,000 viewers for their third quarter and their low point was 777,000 viewers for their eighth quarter.

In terms of yearly comparisons, AEW was up 12.3% in overall viewership and up 19.1% in key demographic viewership.

AEW Dynamite started off with around 984,000 viewers and their biggest gain of the night was the Hangman Adam Page & CM Punk confrontation segment, the Dark Order & Fuego Del Sol backstage promo segment, and the Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland vs. The Workhorsemen match which gained 26,000 viewers. AEW’s biggest decline of the night was the ending of the Serena Deeb promo and brawl with Thunder Rosa segment, and the Adam Cole vs. Jeff Hardy match and post-match brawl with Sting, Darby Allin, Young Bucks, and reDRagon which lost 123,000 viewers.

More on AEW Rampage Viewership for May 13th

The May 13th episode of AEW Rampage saw AEW gain a large increase in overall viewership and key demographic rankings and a slight increase in key demographic ratings. That week’s show was notable for being the second week in a row Rampage aired at an earlier start time of 5:30PM EST due to TNT’s current NHL Playoffs commitments.

AEW Rampage drew 340,000 viewers and a 0.12 key demographic rating on TNT. AEW’s key demographic ranking for that week’s show was 30th place.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reason for AEW’s gains that week was due to the large gains from their younger key demographic viewership group, which was up 26.3% compared to the prior week’s show. Another reason reportedly was due to the very large gains from AEW’s key demographic female viewership groups, which were up 110% in Females 18-34 and up 70% in Females 35-49 compared to the prior week’s show. The large gains in AEW’s female key demographic viewership reportedly caused the male-female split for that week’s show to be 65.8% in favor of males compared to the prior week’s split of 78.3% in favor of males.

In terms of head-to-head competition, Pardon The Interruption drew 641,000 viewers on ESPN.

In terms of key demographic viewership, AEW had 158,000 viewers. AEW’s Males 18-34 was down 3.6%, Females 18-34 was up 110%, Males 35-49 was down 2.5%, and Females 35-49 was up 70% compared to the prior week’s show. Meltzer reported that week’s Dynamite show was the sixth youngest skewing sports show for the week, behind five Mexican Liga MX soccer games. The ranking for that week’s Rampage show was not given.

In an interesting note, Meltzer reported that this week’s WWE NXT show managed to top last week’s AEW Rampage show in key demographic viewership for a wrestling show within a 7 day time period. This reportedly was the first time this has happened in NXT and Rampage history. This week’s NXT show had 183,000 key demographic viewers.

AEW Rampage started off with around 338,000 viewers and had around 318,000 viewers for their second quarter, around 339,000 viewers for their third quarter, and around 363,000 viewers for their main event quarter featuring the TNT Championship match of Frankie Kazarian vs. Scorpio Sky (c).