WWE's lucky the 3rd hour wasn't way lower since outside of the main event, that was one of the worst ever in terms of quality.

Last week's Smackdown had a poor 2nd hour in terms of quality but the first hour was better than any of RAW's last night.

Read the results last Friday, and it sounded like a house show.

WWE clearly has no real pressure from USA Network to improve ratings, otherwise there is no way that script gets on air.

WWE structures their rosters so weirdly. Let Heyman have all the guys Vince doesn’t “get.” Put everyone he wants on FOX. Let Heyman run Raw autonomously.

Last night's WWE Backstage episode didn't crack Showbuzz's Top 150 so another abysmal number happened. Lowest viewership that got tracked was a show on Univision that did 93k at the #136 spot.

Backstage ended up doubling last week's viewership according to PWI.

so if Backstage brought in 100k viewers and wasn't in the top 150 how the hell does Univision get ranked 136 with 93k viewers? Seems screwy.

Mainly due to generating a better key demo number than Backstage did. Lowest on Shwobuzz's chart for the night was a 0.04 in that demo.

For some reference, the #150 ranked show generated 350k viewers but was 0.01 points lower than Univision's show.

Don’t know why you’re surprised. When you have a currently moronic, senile and/or delusional old man running things, you’re quality is going to be shit. This shouldn’t even be remotely shocking to anyone.

I’m not surprised.

AEW - 957K


NXT - 750K


https://i.postimg.cc/ZKS2VSnz/EJXM782-XUAEBRH9.jpg

I think next weeks ratings are going to be a key indicator in where they are going to settle for the time being. This episode has the obvious post-PPV bump; let's see if it stays around there. I honestly think it may go up after this weeks show though.

AEW - This week was a really good show so it could.

NXT has the Survivor Series go-home show next week as well.

Oh yeah....when the main roster will invade them :/

3 weeks from now is probably the better indicator since next week is NXT's go-home show for both War Games and Survivor Series while the week after is the post-PPV show which should get a viewership bump.

Those 2 weeks are also NXT's strongest chances of beating AEW because if they don't, then the only time its happening this year is when AEW takes their Christmas week break.

By then AEW will have settle in for a bit and NXT will start settling down since no more main roster shows to help boost interest.

NXT is consistently a better in ring product all the way around. AEW can't touch them on women's wrestling though. AEW wins on storylines and just looking better in bigger arenas plus having a much better Tag Division.

This is coming from someone who really likes AEW and has been to two shows already. I always start with AEW off my DVR when I can start watching.

AEW has got quite a few advantages, but I don’t think they can count on them long-term, especially if NXT loads itself up, pays off some big stuff and starts travelling. It’s a good thing AEW are bringing along MJF. They need stars.

Smackdown:


Hr 1 - 2.45
Hr 2 - 2.26

Avg - 2.35 million viewers
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Bray talks about DBry - 436k
Undisputed Era - 374k
Bray's new title - 362k


https://i.postimg.cc/SKFfbDsX/Fast-D...Nov-15-FRI.png

Here's how SD has done since debuting on FOX


https://i.imgur.com/g8BW3vW.png

Not surprised it dropped since once you take out the NXT invasion stuff and Draft, Smackdown has been mostly dull and/or boring since the move to FOX.

Probably would be looking at a lot closer to a sub 2 million number if you took out the boost SD gets just for being on FOX.

CyNick used to claim WWE was massively successful because it “dummied” everything on cable (even when it lost in the ratings). Would be interesting to hear him excuse it getting “dummied” 3 times over by Hawaii 50.

RAW was up by around 69k compared to last week's show albeit with another sub 2-million 3rd hour.

1st hour was lower compared to last week but 2nd and 3rd hours were higher.

Took the #4, #5, and #6 spots in the demo rankings compared to last week's #4, #5, and #8 rankings.

8PM - 2,245,000
9PM - 2,211,000
10PM - 1,925,000

2.13 average

Last night's episode of WWE Backstage ended up doing 180k viewers and a #104 ranking according to Showbuzz Daily.

So basically adding Punk was worth an extra 80k viewers compared to last week's numbers.

AEW - 893k
18 to 34 - .25
18 to 49 - .39

NXT - 916k
18 to 34 - .19
18 to 49 - .30

That's one of those Good/Bad type situations for NXT.

Good that they managed to hit over 900k and break AEW's streak but at the same time, AEW still managed to rank higher than NXT (#8 vs. #14) and the gap being that small despite everything going into NXT's show.

Also seems AEW was hit a lot harder from the Presidential debates and NXT got more of WWE's older main shows audience to carry over for their show.

I think both shows step it up when the ratings are that close. 25k difference is just going to make them both bring it a little more next week.

Based on the Observer Newsletter, NXT's start and over-run ended up being the key reasons why they were able to beat AEW this week. If only the over-run was the strongest, NXT likely wouldn't have been able to beat AEW.

NXT's show started out higher than AEW, spiked with the Becky Lynch segment, and then went into a noticeable freefall until the final 30 minutes and over-run. AEW started out lower, was mostly steady in the 1st hour, spiked big by the time of Jericho's segment, had a noticeable fall afterwards, and then managed to rebound to around its starting level by the end of the show.

In terms of the 18-49 demo, NXT didn't beat AEW in any of the head-to-head quarters. The Becky segment was the closest NXT ever got to AEW's demo numbers.

SmackDown:


Hr 1 - 2.7
Hr 2 - 2.5

Avg - 2.6 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)

Last week was:

RAW - 2.13
AEW - 893k
NXT - 916k
SD - 2.60


Will be interesting to see what post ppv bump RAW/NXT gets and how AEW/NXT/SD do airing the day before and after Thanksgiving in the U.S.

No ppv bump for RAW, it actually went down instead


Hr 1 - 2.24
Hr 2 - 2.19
Hr 3 - 1.89

avg - 2.11 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)

Most Watched on YT:
Rey wins US Title - 1.1 million
Rusev arrested - 1 million
KO stuns Seth - 930k

If I had to guess, probably just audience fatigue considering it was the 4th day in a row of WWE shows and very little meaningful Survivor Series fallout happened. Outside of Rollins opening promo, felt a lot more like a regular RAW than something coming off of a PPV.

Smackdown used to have the same problem whenever WWE would run a TakeOver on top of a PPV for a weekend.

In terms of competition, WWE was lucky the MNF game was a blowout by half and one of the weaker games this season in terms of viewership because of it.

Raw is really the least interesting show wrestling has got going at the moment. SmackDown has the FOX presence, AEW is new and not WWE and NXT is at least something they are trying with to get over on the same night as AEW. Raw is just three hours of stale bread.

AEW and NXT being that close is basically a watch in terms in USA vs. TNT, given how ratings are calculated, but overall it has to be considered the second win for NXT, given that Nielsen goes with about 10% either way and his doesn't factor in the WWE Network numbers for NXT.

Will be interesting to see if this starts a new trend of NXT beating out AEW each week.

WWE Backstage ended up doing 121k for viewers and a #125 ranking for last night's episode without CM Punk. Also a 0.5 in the 18-49 demo ranking.

Had it dropped by another 0.1 of a point, would have been in the 140 range for rankings and even possibly not get ranked at all.

Smackdown:


Hr 1 - 2.35
Hr 2 - 2.32

Avg - 2.33 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Roman vs Roode - 745k
Sheamus Promo - 515k
Fiend attacks DBry - 483k


http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/wp-cont...Nov-29-FRI.png

Within a span of 2 months, SmackDown went from having a very sizable lead in terms of the key demo rankings and hitting the 1.0+ target FOX wants to now being under half of its initial weeks and barely beating other shows in the demo rankings.

It's because they have changed literally nothing. Smackdown isn't as horribly written as Raw, but it certainly hasn't gotten any better.

Hmm...

AEW: 663,000 / 0.26 in 18-49

NXT: 810,000 / 0.24 in 18-49

NXT wins for the second week in a row. AEW gets its lowest viewer number yet...

http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/article...1-27-2019.html

Everything went down last week other than NXT tho

RAW did bad and SD did bad

Bit interesting that none of WWE's show got a PPV bump from Survivor Series. Not sure if that's ever happened before where no WWE show got a bump from a PPV.

Old people and AEW having one of its smallest ever advantages in the key demo were the reasons for NXT's big win last week.

RAW:

Hr 1 - 2.42
Hr 2 - 2.28
Hr 3 - 1.93

Avg - 2.21 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)

Most Watched on YT:
Lana/Lashley arrested - 2.6 mil
Rey saves Orton - 1.6 mil
RKO on AJ - 1.4 mil

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">663K was the number for AEW Dynamite last week. <br><br>The +3 DVR has them up to 972K <br><br>That's the difference +309K that didn't view on Wednesday b/c they had to travel or had other plans. Even after hearing the reviews they watched.</p>&mdash; �� �� �� (@DayDreamThis) <a href="https://twitter.com/DayDreamThis/status/1202301237024169986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Last night's WWE Backstage episode ended up doing 138k viewers and a #103 ranking.

It also did a 0.8 in terms of the key demo.

NXT went up to 989 after DVR was added

Lol that so doesn't count.

AEW is getting desperate

AEW needs to count dogs that were in the room too as part of the ratings. Maybe cats too. That'll make them win the WAR

They should also count dead people who would have watched had they been alive.

All it means is people are watching NXT and DVRing AEW so there's no way that counts. They are the second option.

In fairness, given WWE's superiority in the 50+ age demo, WWE should certainly factor that in as well.

As predicted. People mocked the "marathon not a sprint" line, but that's very clearly been their approach. Let AEW cool before they start using main roster names and actually doing angles and whatnot.

I'm fairly certain anyone who still watches Raw is clinically dead.

Yeah, that's gonna work out really fucking well in the long run. Just what folks wanna see, NXT becoming Raw and SD. JFC. :lol:

True. :lol:

I don't think that's the plan though. I mean, Meltzer said it would be at the start, but that was obviously just assumption or baseless speculation, and it didn't really make sense. I mean, this company doesn't do things logically, but AEW only really exists because of fans' frustrations towards them, so it wouldn't make sense to give them more of the same to cure that.

This is a Triple H boutique product and something that is being used to shop more content and the idea that he can run things when Vince is sitting in an Alpha Entertainment boardroom. There's nothing inherently wrong with a lot of the WWE talent, and most of them would do damn well in AEW if they were there. I think the plan is going to be more Daniel Bryan vs. Adam Cole than Natalya shows up and farts in Dakota Kai's coffee.

But hey, this is WWE. I do think that their desire to smoosh everything is even stronger than their desire to fuck everything up. It's smooshing everything that lets them fuck everything up. And so far, NXT has been a logical product. I understand the anxieties behind "This is WWE" though.

Like, not to derail this into content that much, but you could potentially be looking at the next Takeover/When Worlds Collide/whatever the fuck they call it featuring:

* Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa for the NXT Title
* Shayna Baslzer vs. Rhea Ripley for the NXT Women's Title
* Finn Balor vs. Johnny Gargano
* Roderick Strong vs. Velveteen Dream for the NXT North American Title

All of that has been built up and held off, and all of it has some sort of appeal to that hardcore fan. I think the arguments that NXT are "hot shotting" and blowing their wad with stuff is a bit premature.

Worlds Collide 2020 is set to be NXT vs. NXT UK theme. The first one included 205 Live but the brand has been in bad shape due to the Draft gutting its stars and NXT taking over the branding of the title.

NXT is already giving away Baslzer vs. Ripley for the title in two weeks after just a few weeks of build.

That shows clearly that AEW have impacted the booking of NXT; they rarely did anything like that on weekly “TV” before, it all built to the Takeover event. I don’t think the last few weeks have necessarily been good indicators for either brand tbf. Let’s see how NXT does now that the Survivor Series booking has completely wrapped up.

I knew it! Fuck

Gargano and Dream being out put a wrench in that card

Results for last night's AEW vs NXT episodes:

AEW got 851k viewers, #8 ranking, and a 0.32 in the key demo (18-49)

NXT got 845k, #12 ranking, and a 0.29 in the key demo. Besides the 50+ demo, NXT also won the 18-34 demo (0.2 vs. 0.19).

Seems AEW closing the gap in the 50+ was likely the key reason for the win in terms of viewership since it was 0.38 to 0.31 in favor of NXT while last week was 0.4 to 0.25 in favor of NXT. NXT closing the gaps in the other demos was the key reason why the viewership gap was very small.

Also only the second time since the Wednesday Night War started that both AEW and NXT went up in viewership for the night compared to the week before.

The other time was on November 6th.

That worlds collide shit is dumb. Just another excuse to break brand exclusivity.

The Nielsen ratings are way too variable to consider that a clear win for AEW. Especially when you consider that there are no doubt people who watch NXT on the Network when it drops.

oh god just shut the fuck up Noid.

Smackdown:


Hr 1 - 2.54
Hr 2 - 2.36

Avg - 2.45 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Dog food poured on Roman - 719k
Roman vs Dolph - 645k
Bray teases Miz - 398k


https://i.postimg.cc/C1Hz3RSH/Fast-D...Dec-06-FRI.png

Here are numbers for the week, for those curious:

SD - 2.45 million
RAW - 2.21 million
AEW - 851 thousand
NXT - 845 thousand

Take away the college football games as an excuse and Smackdown is still getting very close to losing their advantage in the key demo group for FOX.

Its already been struggling to stay ahead of the viewership minimum FOX wants for the show and lost the 1.0+ weekly average needed for FOX to break even in ad revenues due to the lower ad rates.

If there is one thing that can be proven without a doubt is AEW's arrival on TV hasn't led to WWE bothering to improve their main roster shows in terms of quality. They are way too content in just letting NXT handle that issue and blow through the brand's good will in order to beat AEW.

I watched the college football game as I bet on the game. Smackdown is still sitting on my DVR waiting to be watched lol

Overall I found it crazy that game was responsible for any impact on wrestling ratings since Utah has no national fanbase, Oregon might have a small one, but it was a boring game..

RAW:


Hr 1 - 2.25
Hr 2 - 2.20
Hr 3 - 1.99

Avg - 2.15 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:

Rey/AJ - 1.5 million
Divorce Court - 1.5 million
Seth/AOP attack KO - 642k

One of those Good/Bad type situations.

Good in the sense that the 3rd hour just barely missed the 2 million mark and the 1st to 3rd hour drop being a lot smaller compared to last week.

Bad in the sense that the 1st hour was a lot weaker than last week and the big reason for the overall number being lower.

Last night's WWE Backstage episode with Punk's second appearance actually ended up being lower than last week's show. Also went down in the key demo rating.

127k viewers, #128 ranking, and a 0.6 in the key demo.

For some comparisons, last week's episode was 138k, #103 ranking, and 0.8 in the key demo.

Results for last night's AEW and NXT episodes:

AEW got 778k viewers, #11 ranking, and a 0.28 in the key demo.

NXT got 778k viewers, #21 ranking, and a 0.24 in the key demo.

Seems them drawing was due to AEW's advantages in the younger demos got offset by NXT's huge advantage in the older demo.

Interesting enough AEW actually managed to beat NXT in the 25-54 demo (0.32 vs. 0.27) but NXT got carried by a huge 50+ demo that also washed away that advantage for AEW (0.38 vs. 0.29).

SD:


Hr 1 - 2.42
Hr 2 - 2.26

Avg - 2.34 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Roman attacks Ziggler/Corbin - 2.4 million
Firefly Funhouse in Miz's house - 457k
New Day confront Corbin/Ziggler - 294k


https://i.postimg.cc/QCXYpTWH/Fast-D...Dec-13-FRI.png

Here's the weekly ratings:


SD - 2.34 million
RAW - 2.15 million
AEW - 778k
NXT - 778k

That disparity between the #1 and #2 most watched clips on Youtube is pretty crazy.

Also WWE would kill to get those numbers Hawaii Five-O keeps getting especially with older viewers.

Are there any other fanbases that obsess on ratings as much as wrestling fans do? It seems like it might be unique to the internet wrestling community.

Cable news fans?

Not sure if they still do it but FOX News and its fans used to constantly gloat about their prime-time shows beating MSNBC and CNN shows.

I think it’s just people holding out hope that if the ratings eventually get bad enough, WWE will start trying and wrestling will become good again. It’s unique to wrestling because, while other scripted shows might run for a decade tops and once it dips in quality you might as well give up on it, wrestling has been down and recovered many times before. It’s just taking longer than before to recover quality-wise. So the more the ratings reflect the quality, the more hope things will change.

Yes

Cable News fans
Soap Opera fans

I do it too and find it more interesting than the actual product. I was trying to think of a second sentence for this post, something about Wheel of Fortune fans.

Pat Sajak took ill for the Disney Week WoF tapings, so Vanna hosted for him the whole week - on 2 hours notice. That was pretty amazing.

RAW:

Hr 1 - 2.20
Hr 2 - 2.09
Hr 3 - 1.85

Avg - 2.05 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)

Most Watched on YT:
Seth/AOP attack Rey - 1.3 million
RKO on AJ - 1.1 million
Lana/Lashley Proposal - 694k

Wouldn't be surprised if the Gauntlet match drove away a ton of viewers.

Not only was the match itself not that good, it was also one of the biggest wastes of an hour in years. Double whammy of not having an actual winner and Rollins making it all completely meaningless when he simply named himself as Rey's next challenger.

Hr 3 of RAW was #11 in the demos

Last night's WWE Backstage episode didn't rank in ShowBuzz Daily's Top 150 shows for Tuesday.

Lowest ranked show in terms of key demo was a 0.5 meaning Backstage did less than that. Lowest ranked show in terms of viewership was 104k meaning its possible Backstage could have also done less than that.

For some comparisons, last week's episode did 127k viewers, #128 ranking, and a 0.6 in the key demo.

Backstage ended up with 95k viewers

Results for last night's AEW and NXT episodes:

AEW got 683k viewers while NXT got 795k and also won several other notable demos for the first time since the Wednesday Night War started.

Rankings and actual demo numbers haven't been released yet by ShowBuzz Daily.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NXT wins the night with 795,000 vs. AEW Dynamite 683,000 live &amp; same-night-DVR viewers. More details soon at <a href="https://t.co/b30cDz6YY1">https://t.co/b30cDz6YY1</a>. NXT also wins adult and young male demographics for first time across the board.</p>&mdash; Pro Wrestling Torch (@PWTorch) <a href="https://twitter.com/PWTorch/status/1207769933691719682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Soo far WWE's tactic of stunting AEW's growth by having NXT eat into their viewership has been working very well since they promoted NXT on the main brand for Survivor Series. Its also come at the cost of those lost viewers from AEW not jumping over en masse to NXT but WWE never cared about that and why the overall Wednesday audience has shrunk a lot more than it has grown.

Rankings went #27 and a 0.27 key demo rating for NXT compared to #30 and a 0.25 key demo rating for AEW.

NXT's biggest wins were with Females 18-49 (+0.6), Males 12-34 (+0.4), and the 50+ demo (+0.9). AEW's biggest win was Males 18-49 (+0.3).

Here's the full chart:

https://i.postimg.cc/MTHhy6rh/EMLs-W0p-XUAIy-Iqa.png

Alaskan Bush People dominating NXT and AEW

AEW fading. Should be on the WWE Network by 2021.

I'd watch a show about Eric Bischoff and his family moving to Alaska.

Alaskan Bisch People, make it happen.

The thing is, AEW will end up with 500k+ via on Demand. I just want to point out that I use Sling and regularly DVR Dynamite and I am not able to fast forward the commercials.

You are correct @ Jordan X.

AEW is doing fine, is a good product and will continue to do fine in the forseeable future IMO.

Does that mean they live in bushes, or are these relatives of George W Bush that happen to live in Alaska?

Either way, I'm intrigued.

IDK either but also VERY intrigued!

Only problem is live viewers are what matter the most to advertisers and AEW more than NXT needs the stronger live viewership, especially in the key demos.

If NXT fails on tv, WWE can just put it back on the Network to help strength the appeal of the service. If AEW fails on tv, they don't have a similar option available and instead either go belly up or if lucky, land on a worse tv network.

Lol they can't count people who taped the show. It just means there was something better on to watch.

AEW getting desperate

I tape both shows and watch both later on.

Also Vince will probably bring in Bushwhackers 2000 or something

Smackdown went back up:


Hr 1 - 2.49
Hr 2 - 2.34

Avg - 2.42 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:

Miz/DBry vs Corbin/Ziggler - 940k
Mandy kisses Otis - 513k
Sasha taunts Lacey Evan's daughter - 485k


http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/wp-cont...Dec-20-FRI.png

Weekly TV Ratings for the big four:

SD - 2.42 million
RAW - 2.05 million
NXT - 795k
AEW - 683k