AEW Dynamite Ratings Down For New Year's Smash Episode

Though last week's Nielsen TV ratings news for "AEW Dynamite" was mostly good, the December 28 edition, billed as "New Year's Smash," shifted back in the other direction.

As reported by ShowBuzzDaily and Wrestlenomics, Wednesday night's episode of "Dynamite" averaged 876,000 total viewers, 365,000 of which were in the key demographic, adults aged 18-49. The latter figure was good enough for a 0.28 rating in said key demo. All told, both of those metrics dropped eight percent from last week. According to ShowBuzzDaily's rankings of Wednesday's cable originals, "Dynamite" ranked fifth for the day, behind only ESPN's college football bowl game coverage.

Compared to last year's "New Year's Smash" show, the average total viewership was down ten percent in total audience and 24 percent in the key demo. Meanwhile, according to the deeper analysis on the Wrestlenomics Patreon page, compared to the median ratings across the previous four weeks, the biggest gain was a six percent increase in the women 18-49 demographic, while the demo with the biggest drop was male viewers 12-34, which was down a whopping 37 percent.

"Dynamite: New Year's Smash" was capped off by Samoa Joe's successful TNT Championship defense against Wardlow. The aftermath of the match saw Joe assault referee Paul Turner and cut off Wardlow's ponytail. The other featured matches Wednesday night saw Bryan Danielson score a decisive win over Ethan Page (as AEW World Champion MJF looked on) and The Elite beating Death Triangle in a falls count anywhere match to tie their best-of-seven series at three wins apiece.