Week 64 (we are not including last week in the competition due to the Brodie Lee tribute show) of the Wednesday Night War saw AEW Dynamite defeat WWE NXT in viewership and ratings.
Wednesday’s live New Year’s Smash Night 1 edition of Dynamite drew 662,000 viewers on TNT, while the live New Year’s Evil edition of NXT drew 641,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.
AEW ranked #48 in the Cable Top 150, while NXT ranked #68. AEW ranked #75 in viewership, while NXT ranked #80 in viewership.
Last week’s Dynamite Brodie Lee tribute show drew 977,000 viewers and ranked #4 in the Cable Top 150, and #57 in viewership. Last week’s NXT drew 586,000 viewers and ranked #58 in the Cable Top 150, and #75 in viewership.
AEW drew a 0.25 rating in the 18-49 demographic while NXT drew a 0.16 in the same demo this week. Last week’s AEW show drew a 0.32 rating while the NXT episode drew a 0.19 in that demographic.
This was the lowest AEW Dynamite viewership and rating since the June 24 episode, which drew 633,000 viewers and a 0.22 rating in the key demo. This was the lowest NXT numbers since the December 9 episode, which drew 659,000 viewers with a 0.17 rating for the episode that aired after the “Takeover: WarGames 2020” event.
The cable news shows dominated cable on Wednesday night due to happenings in Washington, DC. CNN’s 4pm coverage of the US Capitol riot topped the night in the 18-49 demographic on the Cable Top 150, with a 2.40 rating. The same broadcast topped the night on cable in viewership with 10.168 million viewers.
NBC News’ special report on the Capitol incident topped the night on network TV in viewership with an average of 5.822 million viewers. That broadcast also took the #1 spot in the 18-49 demographic with a 1.12 rating.
Below is our 2021 NXT Viewership Tracker:
January 6 Episode: 641,000 viewers with a 0.16 rating in the 18-49 demographic (New Year’s Evil episode)
January 13 Episode:
2020 Total: 37.027 million viewers over 53 episodes
2020 Average: 698,623 viewers per episode
2019 Total: 10.209 million viewers over 13 episodes
2019 Average: 785,307 viewers per episode
Below is our 2021 AEW Dynamite Viewership Tracker:
January 6 Episode: 662,000 viewers with a 0.25 rating in the 18-49 demographic (New Year’s Smash Night 1 episode)
January 13 Episode:
2020 Total: 42.970 million viewers over 53 episodes
2020 Average: 810,755 viewers per episode
2019 Total: 10.840 million viewers over 12 episodes
2019 Average: 903,333 viewers per episode
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