How Was Lucha Underground Season 2 Viewership Compared To Season 1?
Lucha Underground finished its second season off with its viewership on El Rey nearly doubling that of the first season.
The first season, however, also aired on American Spanish language channel UniMás. We don't have complete data for the show's viewership on UniMás, but for those weeks we do, it looks like being on that network gave Lucha Underground an extra 150,000 to 200,000 viewers per week in the first season.
The first-run airings of the season-two episodes on Wednesday nights on El Rey were more highly-viewed than almost any of the show's El Rey airings of season one.
Average viewership for the first-run airings at 8:00pm ET almost doubled from the first season. The replay airings more than doubled.
Average Viewership on El Rey for Season 1 (for episodes February 11, 2015 and after):
First Run: 65,615
Replay: 27,885
First Run + Replay: 93,808
Average Viewership on El Rey for Season 2:
First Run: 123,154
Replay: 60,231
First Run + Replay: 183,385
The most viewed episode of the second season was the Aztec Warfare episode, which featured in the in-ring debut of Rey Mysterio (232,000 viewers).
The program went head-to-head with NXT Takeover: The End on June 8, and did its third-lowest viewership number of the season (146,000). The next week, on June 15, PopTV aired a replay of TNA Impact because the original airing the night before was marred by technical difficulties. Probably hurt by going against TNA, Lucha Underground did its lowest viewership of the season (128,000).
It looks like viewership for Lucha Underground was consistent and strongest when the new season premiered, then waned slightly, popping back up for Mysterio's debut, then waning again until the three-episode Ultima Lucha season finale.
It'll be interesting to see if the program can hold onto this season-over-season momentum going into season three, which has already been recorded.