The final television viewership estimates for the premiere episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT are now available from ShowBuzzDaily.
Television Viewership
This week’s premiere episode of AEW Dynamite brought in 1,409,000 viewers during its first run on TNT, generating a 0.68 rating. For those of you who are wondering, last night’s two-hour premiere of WWE NXT on the USA Network brought in a total audience of 891,000 viewers, generating a 0.32 rating.
DVR, Online, And Other Viewership Information
The total viewership for any one episode of a television show is hard to estimate. On his Twitter account, Eric Bischoff suggests that DVR numbers can add a total of 10% to 12% to the final viewership numbers. Historically, we’ve seen DVR+1 and DVR+3 figures (the amount of people who watch the show on their DVR within one day and three days of recording it) add 150,000 more viewers to the final viewership numbers reported above. On Steve Austin’s podcast, former TNA President Dixie Carter suggests that sometimes DVR+3 numbers (which are not reported to the public) have added up to 40% to the final viewership numbers. Plus, the official YouTube channels of wrestling promotions post a large portion of each episode of their television shows online with no expiration date. Over the course of the first week that they are available, these YouTube clips typically bring in between 50,000 and 100,000 viewers for smaller promotions and, potentially, in the millions of viewers for larger promotions. However, as DVR and YouTube viewers are not included in the television viewership estimates above, these figures are rarely if ever reported by professional wrestling “news” websites. We feel that it is necessary to report this information in order to provide a full definition for the entire spectrum of viewers for each episode.
Interested in learning more about the historical ratings wars and viewership numbers? If so, then check out IWHeadlines.com’s Ratings War area. In the Ratings War area you can see a comparison of WCW NITRO vs. WWE RAW from the late 1990s and early 2000s, IMPACT Wrestling vs. Monday Night RAW from the spring of 2010, and IMPACT Wrestling vs. Superstars from all of 2010 and the first part of 2011. Plus, you can see a comparison of viewership numbers from week-to-week as well as ratings and viewership tracking information. Enjoy!
