
AEW Dynamite attracted its largest audience since October for the Maximum Carnage special this past week.
The January 15 episode from Cincinnati averaged 679,000 viewers and 243,000 (0.18) in the 18-49 demographic – its largest audience since October 2 and a three-week high in the core demo as it matched the average for the Christmas Day edition.
The show was not without heavy competition as outgoing president Joe Biden held his farewell address at 8 p.m. ET and lasted for 22 minutes. It aired across multiple broadcast and cable networks with over 20 million viewers watching the address while Dynamite aired the Kenny Omega vs. Brian Cage match.
Dynamite ranked fifth among cable programs in prime time behind the New York Knicks vs. Philadelphia 76ers (1,219,000 viewers and 0.37 in 18-49) and three programs on Fox News. Dynamite topped MTV’s The Challenge and a college game between Kansas and Iowa State on ESPN2 in the 18-49 demographic.
Led by a rare AEW Championship match on television and Kenny Omega’s first match in AEW in over a year, the show saw a 10% increase in overall viewership and a 7% jump in the 18-49 demographic.
The demographic breakdowns provided by Wrestlenomics displayed several observations. The 18-34 demographic grew by 24% this week with an average of 87,000 viewers and was completely due to an increase among males in the demo as females were identical to last week’s average.
The other spikes occurred among females 18-49, which were up 31% this week, and females 35-49 up 53% from last week.
Dynamite attracted an audience of 89,500 viewers and 44,600 in the 25-54 demographic on TSN 2 in Canada. It ranked eighth among sports programming on Wednesday and was Dynamite’s largest audience in the country since November 13.
Data: Programming Insider and Wrestlenomics