Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: ratings, Smackdown, wrestling, wwe

Ratings Wars: NXT Loses to Dynamite, Smackdown Loses to Shark Tank

Published Sat, 20 Feb 2021 19:05:09 -0600

Howdy folks. The Chadster here, bringing you a dispatch from behind enemy lines in the wrestling ratings wars. Tragedy befell the wrestling world this week when WWE lost ratings battles for both NXT and Smackdown, despite an approaching PPV and WWE being right in the middle of the usually popular WrestleMenia Season. Ratings wars are never without casualties, but who could have imagined WWE losing so badly and so frequently?

The official logo for WWE Friday Night Smackdown.

Smackdown Ratings Improve, But Not Enough to Beat Shark Tank

Smackdown's viewership pushed back above 2 million this week after plummeting below that number last week, which is good news. Comparing this week's overnight ratings to last week's, Smackdown did about the same in the 18-49 demographic. But the show failed to beat Shark Tank in the demo. Furthermore, Smackdown had the lowest overall viewership of any network show not on the CW. With hours of 2.038 million viewers and 2.105 million viewers, Smackdown averaged 2.072 million viewers overall. Both hours earned a .5 in the 18-49 demographic.

The official logo for WWE NXT.

Like Smackdown, NXT Viewership Grows But AEW Dynamite Still Wins the Night

Wedensday cable ratings were delayed by the President's Day holiday, but once those numbers arrived, it wasn't good news for WWE either. With Donald Trump's impeachment trial over, viewership grew for both Dynamite and NXT, but Dynamite still crushed NXT, drawing 748,000 viewers and earning a .31 in the 18-49 demographic. That was enough to put Dynamite in 4th place on cable for the night, behind MTV's The Challenge, NBA Basketball, and the Real Housewives of New Jersey. NXT, on the other hand, was ranked 29th, with a .16 in 18-49 and 714,000 viewers.

The Bottom Line 'Cause Chad Said So

The Chadster has poured every part of his heart and soul into trying to get better ratings for WWE, but no matter how many people The Chadster tells to watch the show, WWE just keeps losing. If The Chadster were a less optimistic man, he would probably give up on WWE ever turning things around but The Chadster still has a little bit of faith that WWE will turn things around eventually. Hopefully, the end of this pandemic will be the start of WWE's return to Attitude Era glory.

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