AEW Dynamite Viewership Down Against Hurricane Ian Coverage

"AEW Dynamite" couldn't maintain its streak of one million viewer shows on Wednesday night, but it does have a good reason with many eyes fixed on Hurricane Ian's arrival on Florida's Gulf Coast. Wrestlenomics shared viewership information for Wednesday and the September 28 episode was watched by an average of 990,000 viewers, down five percent from last week's Grand Slam special and the lowest for the program since August 17.

The key demographic also suffered as "Dynamite" was watched by 444,000 viewers aged 18-49, down three percent for a 0.34 P18-49 rating.

"Dynamite" finds itself down in the rankings for the week in cable originals due to the dominant coverage of Hurricane Ian. "Dynamite" ranked ninth in the key demographic and for broadcast primetime, it ranked 20th. The Weather Channel took seven of the eight spots in the top ten as people were tuned in for coverage of Ian. The top program for the night was "Chicago Fire" on NBC with a 0.68 P18-49 rating.

A year makes quite a difference as the September 29, 2021 episode of "Dynamite" had a total viewership of 1,152,000, 14 percent more than last night. The key demographic is where the major hit takes place as "Dynamite" is down 24 percent from last year which had a 0.45 P18-49 rating. All that considered, last year's "Dynamite" was not contending a major hurricane.

"Dynamite"  had some newsworthy segments set up for Wednesday as Saraya, the new major acquisition for AEW, spoke her piece on the program. So did MJF who had another confrontation with Wheeler Yuta. Match-wise, "Dynamite" had some intriguing bouts with the main event being Ring Of Honor World Champion Chris Jericho going up against former ROH World Champion Bandido in what was a highlight match for both stars.