Dave Meltzer Gives Frank Assessment Of Recent AEW Dynamite Ratings

Last week's "AEW Dynamite" fared poorly in the viewership and ratings numbers, and a report has now highlighted some concerns that AEW may have taken away from that show.

"Dynamite" registered 622,000 viewers, which was a slight increase from the previous week, but the show's numbers have been declining in recent weeks, in part due to the Olympics.

Dave Meltzer, in the latest "Wrestling Observer Newsletter," pointed out a few issues for the promotion after analyzing the show's viewership numbers. The veteran journalist assessed how the show's viewership began on a strong note, but gradually declined, with the key demographic at one stage dropping from 309,000 viewers to 221,000. He stated that AEW shows witness a decline in viewership during the show each week but argued that last week's drop was sizable. Meltzer stated that women tuned out of the show, with their viewership dropping from 116,000 to 68,000, resulting in a significant decline from quarter to quarter. Meanwhile, viewership among men in the key demographic also declined, but not as much as it did among women, decreasing from 193,000 to 153,000.

One worrying stat for AEW, he said, was that the show's lead-in, "Big Bang Theory," actually beat "Dynamite" in the ratings, registering a 0.20 compared to "Dynamite's" 0.19. He thinks that it is the first time that has happened in "Dynamite's" history.

Another issue from last week's show was that the 18-34 demographic garnered just 54,000 viewers, which he believes is an all-time low in that demographic. He added that the rest of the key demographic, between the ages of 35 and 49, watched the show but didn't watch it in its entirety and left midway. He feels that the fans were just not interested in the Bryan Danielson-Jeff Jarrett and MJF-Kyle Fletcher matches, despite them being good matches, in his opinion.