AEW’s Summer Blockbuster saw an impressive retention of male viewership despite airing against the NBA Finals.
The four-hour special from Portland, Oregon, was broken into two episodes with the Dynamite version from 8 – 10:01 p.m. ET averaging 597,000 viewers and 223,000 viewers (0.17) in the 18-49 demographic.
Dynamite ranked third among cable programs in prime time in the demo behind Gutfeld and Jesse Watters on Fox News.
Compared with the previous week’s portion of Dynamite, the audience fell by nine percent while the core demographic declined by ten percent. There was a major difference as this week’s four-hour special aired against Game 3 of the NBA Finals on ABC. The Indiana Pacers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game attracted 9,195,000 viewers and a 2.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
In the 18-49 demographic, Dynamite was down 25 percent among women; however, males were identical to the week prior, which didn’t air against the playoffs.
The male retention continued as Adults 18-34 fell by fifteen percent overall, but males only dropped by four percent. Females dropped by 28 percent in the demo.
Adults 35-49 declined by six percent, but males grew by two percent from last week, while females fell by 29 percent.
The Collision portion of Summer Blockbuster aired from 10:01 p.m. until 12:05 a.m. ET and averaged 397,000 viewers and 123,000 viewers (0.09) in the 18-49 demographic.
Despite airing against the last hour of the Pacers vs. Thunder, Collision’s audience grew by four percent compared to last Wednesday’s airing immediately after Dynamite for the Fyter Fest special.
In the 18-49 demographic, Collision dropped ten percent from last week but continued the trend of male viewership unaffected from last week. Females in the core demo dropped from 49,000 viewers to 34,000 this week, but males increased from 87,000 to 89,000.
Collision was not listed in Programming Insider’s rankings, but would have been tied for sixth place among prime time cable programs on Wednesday.
Adults 18-34 for Collision fell by fourteen percent as females experienced a 32 percent drop, while males in the demo were up by four percent.
Adults 35-49 fell by seven percent this week, with males increasing by two percent and women dropping by 32 percent.
Wrestlenomics reports that the peak quarter was in the opening fifteen minutes beginning at 8 p.m. ET with 672,000 viewers and 251,000 (0.19) in the 18-49 demographic for the start of the match between Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay. Between 10:30 and 10:45 p.m. ET, there was a thirteen spike in viewership during the segment involving FTR with Atlantis and Atlantis Jr. before declining throughout the rest of the episode. The show’s overrun fell to the lowest mark of the night with 254,000 viewers and 89,000 (0.07) in the demo with The Paragon & Daniel Garcia vs. The Don Callis Family.
To assess Collision’s performance airing immediately after Dynamite, we have included its viewership stats for the recent Saturday night airings (excluding ones that had the NBA as a lead-in and artificially enhanced the audience):
- June 11 (Summer Blockbuster): 397,000 viewers and 0,09 in 18-49
- June 4 (Fyter Fest): 380,000 viewers and 0.10 in 18-49
- May 17: 398,000 viewers and 0.08 in 18-49
- May 3: 341,000 viewers and 0.06 in 18-49 (This aired against WWE Backlash)
- April 12: 455,000 viewers and 0.12 in 18-49
- April 5: 335,000 viewers and 0.08 in 18-49
- March 30: 339,000 viewers and 0.09 in 18-49
Data: Programming Insider & Wrestlenomics
