WWE NXT Ratings Rebound Big In Key Demo For Start Of Women's Title Tournament

With Indi Hartwell injuring her ankle and being called up to WWE's main roster, the "NXT" Women's Championship has been vacated, resulting in a tournament to determine a new champion. That began on Tuesday night's show. With that new focus and despite continued heavy competition from the NBA and NHL playoffs, this week's "NXT" showed positive momentum in the Nielsen ratings.

According to reporting from ShowbuzzDaily and Wrestlenomics, the May 9 "NXT" averaged 601,000 viewers overall across its 127 minutes (up six percent from last week), approximately 222,000 of which were in the "key demo" most valued by advertisers, adults aged 18 to 49 (up 21 percent from the week prior). The latter figure translates to a 0.17 rating in P18-49, which earned "NXT" 12th place in ShowbuzzDaily's rankings of Tuesday's cable originals, an above-average spot in the rankings for WWE's developmental show. It's perhaps worth noting that Tiffany Stratton, who opened the show with a tournament quarterfinals victory over Gigi Dolin, has been the focus of promo spots for "NXT" that have been airing on USA Network of late.

For a bigger picture look at the ratings, the Wrestlenomics Patreon page tracks how "NXT" did in various demographics in relation to the median of the prior four weeks' numbers. By that metric, there was further positive momentum, with all demos being tracked other than adults aged 50+ (down two percent) and male viewers aged 12 to 34 (down five percent) in the opposite direction. Men aged 18 to 49 jumped by 27 percent over the median, followed by 26 percent for adults aged 25 to 49, 21 percent for adults aged 18 to 49, and 20 percent for women aged 18 to 49. Female viewers aged 12 to 34, meanwhile saw no change from the median.