Image: AEW

Going against live sports competition on cable TV for the first time since the start of closed set shows didn’t hurt the ratings for AEW Dynamite on TNT last night.

Last night’s Double or Nothing go-home episode of Dynamite averaged 701,000 viewers, up seven percent from last week. That’s despite NASCAR on FS1 averaging 2.087 million viewers airing directly opposite Dynamite.

The news wasn’t as good for NXT on the USA Network. Last night’s NXT was down two percent from last week, averaging 592,000 viewers. The combined viewership of 1.293 million viewers for Dynamite and NXT was the third lowest since the start of the Wednesday Night Wars. 

In the 18-49 demo, AEW finished the highest they have on the cable TV rankings since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Dynamite drew a 0.26 rating in the demo, up 13 percent from last week. The show finished seventh on cable TV in that demo. 

NXT fell out of the top 50 rankings in the demo with a 0.13 rating, down 13 percent. This was the lowest number NXT has done in that demo since debuting on the USA Network, although the overall viewership was only the fifth lowest. Last night’s NXT finished 53rd in the cable rankings for that category. 

Here’s a look at the last 10 weeks of viewership totals and 18-49 ratings for both shows, which have now all taken place in the closed set era: