Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, NXT, ratings, Vince McMahon, wwe

NXT Gets More Viewers Than AEW But AEW Wins in Ratings

The Wednesday Night Wars continue even as most of the country is shut down for a pandemic. Last night, an episode of AEW Dynamite featuring taped matches went up against a live episode of NXT, and the results were mixed. NXT had more viewers than AEW, with 692k over 683k people watching on average. AEW had a better rating in the 18-49 demo that advertisers pay attention to, with a  .26 rating vs. a .17 rating for NXT. Both shows are down overall, which is to be expected considering the circumstances. The only thing people are watching on TV in significant numbers is cable news about the pandemic. AEW was ranked 29th on the ratings chart for the night. NXT was outside the top 50 at #58.

NXT vs. AEW is a Difficult Choice

Personally, I'm a bigger fan of Raw and Smackdown than NXT and Dynamite, though I do like to watch as much wrestling as I can. The empty arena era has been a good thing for both companies, as audiences frequently ruin things for everyone by injecting their own opinions into the matches with their cheering and booing, sometimes inappropriately. I do like that Dynamite has the wrestlers acting as a crowd, as that does give the company a greater degree of control over how they respond. The main event match between Moxley and Hager was perfect though, no one in the audience trying to steal the show so I could focus on the match itself.

The Bottom Line 'Cause Chad Said So

That being said, AEW can be a little too unpredictable for me. Chris Jericho is a loose cannon on commentary, and you never know what he's going to say. Being worried about that takes me out of the match. Can't they just let Jim Ross do solo commentary for everything? Another interesting point is that NXT going live seems to be paying off in terms of viewership, once again proving Vince McMahon right. Speaking of which, the Chairman needed a win after all the flack he's taken over the past week, so it must have been nice for him to know that working so hard to earn the trust of the President has paid off in a big way.

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