NXT drops to lowest audience of the year against World Baseball Classic, pre-empted in Chicago

Photo Courtesy: WWE

NXT faced another pre-emption in the Chicago market and fell to its lowest audience of the year.

The March 17 episode of NXT averaged 588,000 viewers and 95,000 viewers (0.07) in the 18-49 demographic on CW. The audience fell by nine percent this week, and the key demographic was down by thirteen percent from last week.

Last week’s show was pre-empted in Chicago due to weather coverage and again this week due to coverage of the Illinois primary election.

It was NXT’s lowest numbers since December 30, 2025.

Adults 18-34 dropped from 0.05 to 0.02, but adults 25-54 stayed steady at 0.11.

The show aired against the World Baseball Classic, which averaged 10.2 million viewers and 2.66 in the 18-49 demographic on Fox, and the start of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on truTV.

Data: Programming Insider & Wrestlenomics

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Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.