How Did AEW Dynamite Viewership Fare Against The NBA Finals?
"AEW Dynamite" provided some newsworthy content on its program this week and thanks to that, the show held its own against what was a ratings juggernaut in the NBA Finals.
According to Wrestlenomics, the 6/8 episode of "Dynamite" was watched by 939,000 viewers on average. Compared to last week's post-Double or Nothing episode, the program saw a 3% drop in total viewership.
The key demographic saw more of a significant dip as it garnered an audience of 444,000 in the 18-49 audience (0.34, P18-49). That is a 14% decrease from the previous week's number of 517,000. All that considered, "Dynamite" ranked #1 in the key demographic for cable originals, and for all of broadcast primetime it ranked #8.
"Dynamite" had the NBA to contend with as the Boston Celtics battled the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. That game had a 3.65 in P18-49 and viewership of 11.5 million. Dynamite may not have had a shot against the game itself, but it did beat out the pre-game festivities on ESPN by an average audience of 36,000.
If we look at last year, the numbers come off a little skewed. "Dynamite" aired on a Friday last year at this time due to TNT airing the Finals of the NBA on Wednesday evening. All that considered, the 6/11/2021 episode of "Dynamite" only roped in an average audience of 487,000, which makes last night's episode much bigger by a 452,000 increase in viewers.
AEW had to redirect course after last week when their World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk, revealed that he had an injury that needed surgery. Punk did not have to relinquish the title, however, as it was announced that an interim champion was going to be determined at AEW Forbidden Door. The groundwork was laid out with this week's episode of "Dynamite" as they had a Casino Battle Royale to start the show. The winner of it went on to face Jon Moxley at the end of the evening for the right to fight at the PPV. That lucky wrestler ended up being Kyle O'Reilly who lost to Moxley after being hit with a Paradigm Shift.
Also on the program, we saw the unveiling of a new title in AEW: the All-Atlantic Championship. Buddy Matthews and PAC competed in the opening round of that tournament with PAC being the first fighter to advance in the competition.