AEW Dynamite drops back to typical rating and viewership week after Grand Slam, beats WWE Raw in key male demos, tops cable in 18-49

Last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite (9/29) drew 1.152 million viewers, the lowest viewership of the month, but above the July average of 1.038 million and the August average of 1.057 million. September averaged 1.193 million, buoyed by the additions of C.M. Punk,  Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, and Ruby Soho and the return of Cody Rhodes, although prior top star “Hangman” Page has been absent during that time. One year ago, Dynamite averaged 905,000, including one week unopposed by NXT but otherwise head-to-head with NXT.

Dynamite drew a 0.45 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, down from 0.48 the prior week for the “Grand Slam” special from Queens, N.Y. featuring the first-ever Kenny Omega vs. Daniel Bryan match. Dynamite averaged 0.45 in the 18-49 demo in September, up from 0.41 in August and 0.41 in July.

It was no. 1 on cable, and just behind Raw in that 18-49 demo, as Raw drew a 0.48, only 0.03 ahead of Dynamite. Dynamite outdrew Raw in the male 18-49 demo (0.67 to 0.60) and male 18-34 demo (0.32 to 0.28).

The overall rating was 0.68, down from 0.73 last week. It was in line with the 0.68 average rating the prior ten weeks. One year ago, AEW averaged 0.59 in September and 0.57 over the same ten-week period.

In the seven-day viewership total for the Sept. 15 episode, AEW drew 1.399 million. The prior week’s episode with the Dynamite debuts of Danielson and Cole, AEW topped 1.5 million viewers (1.511 million) for the first times since the debut episode drew 1.741 million. It had only topped 1.4 million three other times in series history.