We have complete rundowns on how every segment did with almost every demo for the 10/16 Wednesday night Wars.
For AEW, the show ranged from 1,174,000 viewers for the SCU vs,. Best Friends match that opened the show to 999,000 for the Chris Jericho vs. Darby Allin title match that ended it. The actual low point was 912,000 viewers for the beginning of the Pentagon & Fenix vs. Marko Stunt & Jungle Boy match.
As far as the segments, the Ortiz & Santana vs. John Silver & Alex Reynolds match, the Jericho interview and the Cody video package lost 174,000 viewers. I should note that video packages like that usually lose viewers but you have to do character development for the long-run and to build PPV matches. The match building process will lose viewers but it’s part of doing long-term business. In this case, the Ortiz & Santana squash was a negative on viewers but they did come back during the Cody promo.
Riho vs. Britt Baker gained 3,000 viewers. Pentagon & Fenix vs. Stunt & Jungle Boy lost 17,000 viewers in total, which was a combination of losing 91,000 viewers early and gaining 74,000 late. Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs. Pac & Jon Moxley gained 71,000 viewers. Jericho vs. Allin lost 58,000 viewers. The reality is that they are going to lose some viewers while building new characters as well. Still, AEW, NXT, Smackdown and Raw are all generally losing viewers throughout the show as a general pattern after decades of history when the opposite was the case. In the Monday Night Wars, the audience always was the highest in the final segments and really until the three-hour Raw era that continued. It’s the opposite for MMA, where, unless it’s a show that ends after 1 a.m. (and sometimes even on those shows) or a show where it gets the benefit of a great lead-in, the peak audience is in the main event.
For NXT, the show opened at 732,000 viewers, the last quarter was 639,000, the overrun after AEW ended gained 127,000 viewers to 766,000 (so that would be a good estimate of the audience that NXT would gain without AEW) and it would be the first week where the overrun helped the final rating, as usually it either hurt it slightly or made no difference. The peak number was the overrun, followed by the Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic match that peaked at 740,000 viewers.
Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. Marcel Barthel &Fabian Aichner lost 38,000 viewers. Io Shirai vs. Kayden Carter and the post-match with Rhea Ripley and Shirai gained 35,000 viewers. Lee vs. Dijakovic gained 10,000 viewers. A combination of Matt Riddle vs. Bronson Reed and Tegan Nox vs. Taynara lost 41,000 viewers. Killian Dain vs. Boa and a Finn Balor segment lost 5,000 viewers. Pete Dunne vs. Damien Priest lost 54,000 viewers until AEW ended and then gained 127,000 at that point.
Keys are that while the overrun did show a crossover, if you look at comparisons, you don’t see a lot of crossover. Both shows dropped audience in the second quarter. Baker vs. Riho gained while Io Shirai vs. Cayden Carter also gained. Pentagon & Fenix match with Jungle Boy & Stunt lost while Lee vs. Dijakovic gained, but in the latter stages the Pentagon & Fenix match gained while Lee vs. Dijakovic held steady. Omega & Page vs. Moxley & Pac did gain strong at the same time NXT was falling with Riddle vs. Reed, Nox vs. Taynara and Boa vs. Dain, and one would think that would happen, but in some demos that was not the case. But AEW lost 58,000 in its final quarter at the same time NXT lost 54,000.
For AEW, the average viewer age was 44.9 years old, up three from week two. For NXT, it was 54.2, one year down. AEW skewed the youngest in the first segment and oldest in Pentagon & Fenix vs. Stunt & Jungle Boy, funny since Jungle Boy should skew young. But stuff like that isn’t going to happen until these guys are on TV regularly to catch on. Don’t expect positive movement from newcomers, and really, almost every on both shows to the TV audience is a newcomer with the exception of Jericho, Moxley and Balor. NXT skewed the oldest during Lee vs. Dijakovic, and youngest, surprisingly, in the overrun for Dunne vs. Priest.
With ages 6-11, AEW opened at 46,000 and closed at 27,000. There was a huge drop in quarters two and three before gains in Pentagon’s match and in Jericho’s match. The Moxley tag actually lost 3,000 in that age group.
With ages 6-11, NXT opened at 22,000 and closed at 3,000. It steadily decreased, grew for Lee vs. Dijakovic, and then collapsed going from 21,000 at the beginning of that match to 11,000 at the end. Then it fell to 7,000 for Riddle and the entire main event was down to 3,000.
Among teenagers, AEW fell throughout except for a slight increase during the Omega tag match. NXT fell until the Riddle match, where, teens doubled and continued to increase until the show went off the air. Even though AEW ruled with teenagers the first few weeks, NXT beat them the last 45 minutes and in the battle of main events, even before the overrun, Dunne vs. Priest was nearly double that of Jericho vs. Allin, and Riddle’s numbers beat Omega’s.
In 18-34, AEW declined until a big increase in the Omega match which gained which went from 183,000 to 236,000 in that demo. They lost heavily in the Santana & Ortiz match (240,000 to 193,000) and continued low for both the Riho and Pentagon matches. They did lose viewers with Jericho vs. Allin after the tag, but it was still a strong number.
For NXT, they opened at 86,000, barely one-third of AEW. They had strong growth for Shirai (87,000 to 108,000) and Lee (108,000 to 121,000) before falling back down and being at 87,000 for Dunne vs. Priest (as compared to 208,000 for Jericho vs. Allin) until the overrun unopposed grew to 125,000.
In 35-49, AEW opened at 414,000 to 178,000 for AEW. The Riho match went from 377,000 to 371,000. The Pentagon match fell to 351,000. The Omega match grew to 386,000 and the Jericho match was 366,000.
In 35-49, NXT opened at 178,000, with no great movement, with 162,000 for the Dunne match before the overrun and 173,000 after.
Key here is 18-34s appear to be interested in both as it picked up 44 percent when AEW ended, but in 35-49, the pick up was only seven percent (misleading because it was 49,000 to 52,000 among women, but 93,000 to 122,000 among men) and for teenagers it was only 2.5 percent while for over 50 it was 15.3 percent. So basically, the crossover is big in 18-34 across the board, and in 35-49 with men but not with women and noticeable but not nearly as large over 50.
Both shows opened identically with teenage girls. AEW declined badly throughout the show, even during the Riho match. NXT killed AEW in the last 45 minutes by giant margins, which would be the Omega & Jericho matches as compared with Riddle, Nox, Dain and Dunne. But the growth, more than doubling, was during Lee vs. Dijakovic.
Women 18-34 for AEW had the decline after the first match, and then stayed steady until big growth in the Omega tag, followed by a decline for the Jericho match.
For NXT, which opened at well under one-third of the AEW audience in that demo (79,000 to 23,000), they grew from 24,000 to 31,000 for Shirai, dropped right back down after and stayed at the same level until the overrun.
In women 35-49, AEW opened with 123,000 to 75,000 for NXT. There were declines after the first quarter in AEW and a gain during the Omega match but only from 90,000 to 99,000 and the Jericho match fell to 87,000, which still beat Dunne vs. Priest at 49,000 pre-overrun. Riddle’s match was 52,000 compared with the Omega match.
For teenage boys, after the first segment, it was all down for AEW except for growth in the Omega match. For NXT, Riddle nearly doubled the audience and like with teenage girls, NXT won the last 45 minutes after that growth, including winning during the Omega tag.
Males 18-34 opened at 161,000 to 63,000. AEW declined throughout until picking up 40,000 for the Omega match to 175,000, and the Jericho match was 157,000. For NXT, it peaked at 93,000 for Lee vs. Dijakovic. The Dunne vs. Priest match did 61,000 against the Jericho match and grew to 94,000 when AEW went off the air.
In Males 35-49, it opened with AEW at 291,000 to NXT at 103,000 so nearly tripling. For the Riho vs. Io comparison, it was 272,000 to 99,000. For the Pentagon vs. Lee comparison, it was 261,000 to 96,000. Omega’s match hit 288,000 while main events were 279,000 to 93,000 head-to-head, so three-to-one edge, and NXT increased to 122,000 after AEW ended.
Among those over 50, NXT opened with a 411,000 to 410,000 edge. Both fell, but AEW fell more. Both grew identical, 27,000, for Riho vs. Io but NXT had an overall edge at 412,000 to 380,000. AEW gained 11,000 for the Pentagon match while NXT gained 27,000 for Lee vs. Dijakovic. The Omega match declined 18,000 but NXT declined more but it was still a 380,000 to 373,000 NXT edge during the Omega match while NXT had Boa vs. Dain and a Balor promo segment. Main events were 367,000 to 359,000 edge to the Jericho match, but NXT grew 55,000 after AEW ended.
Quelle: Wrestling Observer Newsletter