Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite television show averaged 588,000 viewers for TBS, according to ProgrammingInsider.com. The viewership count was down from the 637,000 viewership average of last week’s show. Dynamite finished with a 0.15 rating in 18-49 demo, down from last week’s 0.16 rating in the same demo.
Powell’s POV: The Max streaming numbers are not included in the rating or viewership count listed above. The numbers are weak, especially considering that the only meaningful sports competition was the ESPY Awards, which averaged 2.179 viewers on ABC. Tuesday’s NXT on The CW averaged 586,000 viewers and a 0.12 rating in the 18-49 demo against the MLB All-Star Game, which averaged 7.185 million viewers for Fox. One year ago, the July 17, 2024, edition of Dynamite on TBS delivered 795,000 viewers and a 0.27 rating in the 18-49 demographic for the 250th episode.
Shitty garbage match PPV leads to lower ratings. AEW is dead.
Jason
Serious non-partisan question for you
How important are these ratings numbers really? I don’t watch NXT live anymore, I usually watch it the next day on the CW app. I know a lot of people go back and watch AEW later on. And RAW is essentially on demand now.
So in 2025 what do TV ratings really tell us?
The ratings are still used for all of television, so it’s not like it’s just some pro wrestling thing. They are still the metric used by advertisers because the big streamers only allow Nielsen to release occasional numbers (the NFL on Netflix/Amazon is one example). The Raw on Netflix numbers include people who watch on delay. You are included through the CW app, so apparent they work with Nielsen. DVR numbers are also included in the Nielsen ratings. None of the streaming numbers are included for Warner Bros. Discovery (AEW) or Peacock (SNME). So are we getting the full picture like the Nielsen ratings once provided? No. But there are still things to take from the numbers such as trends, the demographic breakdown, and how the shows fare compared to the rest of television. I think we’ll eventually see advertisers demand more clarity from the streamers, which will lead to Nielsen being allowed to share their data or another party charting streaming numbers. I hope that helps answer the question.