TBS Celebrates AEW Dynamite Grand Slam, Says Program Reached 2.8 Million Viewers

Although last week's "AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam" reportedly averaged 984,000 viewers on TBS, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) issued a press release Monday to claim that 2.8 million fans watched the third-annual television special that emanated from Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York.

While WBD did not provide specifics on the viewership breakdown, one can assume the additional nearly two million viewers included delayed viewers watching via DVR, on-demand, and other official streaming platforms that carry AEW programming. 

Through the release, WBD also touted last Wednesday's show as "the strongest performing episode of the year," citing the fact that the show delivered a 1.11 rating among adults 25-54 and a 0.93 rating among adults 18-49. In both key demographics, AEW saw a nearly 20 percent spike from the prior six weeks, a key indicator of the interest the special episode generated among casual fans. As noted in the live viewership article, "Dynamite: Grand Slam" also finished as cable's #1 telecast among key demographics including adults 18-49 and males 25-54, and ranked #2 across all cable and network television among males 18-34. 

In terms of traditional viewership, the 984,000 viewers marked the most-watched episode of "Dynamite" since the February 22 episode which averaged 1,028,000 viewers. Over the past few months, AEW's flagship show had struggled to move up from the 850,000-900,000 viewership range, with even the key demos taking a hit compared to previous years. In fact, only two episodes of "Dynamite" have hit the 1 million mark this year — January 25 and February 22. With last week's show generating a lot more eyeballs, it now remains to be seen if "Dynamite" has done enough to re-ignite the waning interest of a lot of lapsed AEW viewers.

This week's "Dynamite" will be the go-home episode ahead of Sunday's WrestleDream pay-per-view, where Bryan Danielson will wrestle NJPW star Zack Sabre Jr. in the main event.