The U.S. Capitol attack took its toll on pro wrestling viewership – Cageside Seats

The ratings and viewership data are in for this week’s (Jan. 6) NXT and AEW television shows.

Per PW Torch, Dynamite netted 662,000 viewers for a .25 rating point in the 18-49 demographic. NXT checked in with 641,000 viewers for a .16 rating point in the same 18-49 demo.

For AEW, their overall audience crashed down by about 315,000 viewers from last week’s Brodie Lee tribute show, with a huge drop from last week’s 0.40 demo rating. For NXT, viewership increased by 55,000 viewers from the prior week, and the demo rating was up from last week’s 0.12.

News coverage of yesterday’s attack on the United States Capitol building likely accounts for a big chunk of the wrestling fans who chose to watch something besides AEW or NXT last night.

Earlier in the day, President Trump riled up an angry mob with non-stop lies and debunked conspiracy theories denying his clear loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. He directed these people to march on the Capitol building, in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the next president of the USA. The rioters breached the building and ransacked it in a violent and disturbing scene that resulted in multiple deaths. Instead of condemning the insurrection that he incited, Trump chose to praise the rioters by saying “we love you.”

Speaking for myself, I had no interest in watching AEW last night because I only wanted to know what was going on in Washington D.C. If writing about AEW during Dynamite wasn’t part of my job, there’s no way I would have watched the show live last night, because there were far more important things going on.

Here’s a breakdown of AEW viewership and rating in the 18-49 demo over the last year:

Here’s a breakdown of NXT’s audience and ratings share of the same demographic:

Total viewership for Wednesday night checked in at 1,303,000 pro wrestling fans.

Check out both our Dynamite live blog, review & video highlights, and our NXT live blog, review & video highlights, in case you missed any of the Wednesday Night War’s latest chapter.

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