The awkward security-cam footage angle on last night’s AEW “Dynamite” was not only widely critically panned, it also didn’t move the needle on the show’s ratings.
The April 10 episode of “Dynamite” averaged 819,000 viewers, which, sure, is up from the average over the past four weeks, which was at 774,000.
But that number, below the 800,000-viewer Mendoza Line for “Dynamite” TV numbers, was itself well off from where the show had been at its peak in the summer of 2022, in and around that year’s “All Out” pay-per-view.
You might remember that one – it was the setting for the first backstage brawl involving now-former AEW top draw CM Punk.
“Dynamite” drew 1 million-plus viewers for five straight weeks and six weeks out of seven leading into and then coming immediately out of the 2022 “All Out.”
The flagship AEW weekly show has passed the 1 million mark just two times since, the last time more than a year ago, on Feb. 22, 2023.
Perhaps worse for AEW head guy Tony Khan, who reportedly went against the wishes of his talents, most notably company executive vice presidents Matt and Nick Jackson, to air the security footage of the 2023 “All In” backstage incident involving Punk and midcard performer Jack Perry, the segment drew an embarrassingly low 880,000 viewers for the 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET quarter-hour, according to data from Wrestlenomics.
And, yes, it gets worse from there – the segment, hyped since the weekend “Collision” show, not only failed to lure many new viewers to the show, but after its airing, the ratings cratered from there.
According to Wrestlenomics, the 8:45-9 p.m. ET quarter-hour averaged 822,000 viewers, and the viewer numbers fell throughout the 9 p.m. ET hour, with the final segment, the 9:45-10 p.m. ET slot with the show’s main event, featuring AEW world champ Samoa Joe and Dustin Rhodes, averaging just 723,000 viewers.
Yikes, indeed.
You’re supposed to at least draw a big number from hotshot booking, and if you do it right, you can expose the new people to the other stuff that you have to offer, and use that to build numbers for future weeks.
Or you can just confuse the sh-t out of the relative few new people who tune in, and then try to make excuses for why they changed the channel.
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Chris Graham
