AEW and NXT Ratings: Update on AEW expanding its live viewership lead, doubling NXT in key demo, plus 7-day viewership update

Last night, the May 20 episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT drew 701,000 viewers, outdrawing NXT on USA Network which drew 592,000. It was the first 100,000+ lead in live and same-night-DVR viewership since March 18.

AEW had typically outdrawn NXT by more than 100,000 viewers before the empty-arena era began in late march. Since then, AEW has averaged 712,000 viewers since March 25. In 2020, through March 11, AEW averaged 885,000 viewers.

Each show drew a similar cable rating – 0.52 to 0.51 in favor of AEW.

In the core 18-49 demo, AEW doubled NXT’s rating. AEW drew a 0.26 rating, landing in position no. 7 among all cable shows on Wednesday night. NXT didn’t finish in the top 50 in that demo, drawing a 0.13 in that demo.

We also have an update on 7-day viewership for the May 6 episode. AEW ended up wit 936,000 viewers, the highest 7-day viewership total since March 25, when AEW drew more than a million viewers. AEW averaged 1.131 million viewers in 2020 until March 11. Since March 25, AEW has averaged 933,000 viewers. That’s a loss of 17.5 percent of their viewers. (We exclude the March 18 episode since NXT didn’t present a show with original first-run matches that day and AEW outdrew NXT by an outlier margin.)

In 7-day viewership, the May 6 episode drew 803,000. That’s above the NXT average 7-day total viewership since March 25 of 793,000. The average in 2020 through March 11 was 895,000. That’s a drop of 11.4 percent. Some of NXT viewers aren’t captured in Neilsen ratings because of WWE Network viewership starting 24 hours after the USA Network airs it live.

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