Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, dynamite, ratings, wednesday night wars, wrestling

AEW Ratings Steady for Saturday Dynamite as Show Returns to Top 5

Published Tue, 25 Aug 2020 10:35:02 -0500

The cable ratings are finally in from Saturday, and it looks like AEW Dynamite managed to maintain its audience and demo rating despite moving to a different night. The show returned to the top 5 cable shows on Saturday and brought in numbers in the normal range of Wednesday airings. Though there was not an episode of WWE NXT on USA, Dynamite did compete against NXT Takeover XXX, which aired on the WWE Network (and which we don't have any numbers for).

Cody Rhodes is pleased with the AEW Saturday Dynamite ratings (Photo credit: AEW)

AEW Dynamite Ratings Steady in Different Time Slot

AEW Saturday Dynamite scored a .31 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, down from a .32 for the last Wednesday episode that aired on August 13th. Viewership was also down, from 792,000 total viewers to 755,000 viewers. However, in rankings, Saturday Dynamite was up from 9th place to 5th place. The show was beaten only by three NBA games and UFC, which took the top four spots.

The Pacers vs. Heat game that aired before Dynamite on TNT did roughly double the numbers in total viewership and demo rating, which surely helped as a lead-in. However, the NBA game that aired on ESPN at the same time as Dynamite was the top show of the night on cable, drawing a .67 rating in 18-39 and 1.757 million viewers. All things considered, retaining most of its audience, charting in the top five, and potentially gaining some new fans from the NBA lead-in has to be considered a win for AEW Dynamite.

The Bottom Line 'Cause Chad Said So

Loathe as I am to admit it, AEW did pretty good for having their timeslot switched to Saturday night. Moving air times can be really tough for a wrestling show. Wrestling fans are a superstitious and cowardly lot, and they can be easily spooked by changing a timeslot. They're kind of like groundhogs in that way, scared of their own shadows. So congratulations to AEW. Now, maybe they'll consider keeping Dynamite on Saturday Nights so that my beloved NXT can air without competition on Wednesdays.

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