Cobra Commander Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 (edited) "Juneteenth really didn't arrive as a widely celebrated holiday until the one year where it was blamed for an AEW ratings decrease" Kendrick might have done some damage although you'd think he did damage to a bunch of programming and not just AEW. The quarterhours are what they are for assigning credit/blame.. but the number is so low that the QHs have to have something in them to average 502 instead of the low 700s high 600s.. like did the entirety of the audience just tune out on the Bucks.. that sort of thing Edited June 21 by Cobra Commander Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 53 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said: "Juneteenth really didn't arrive as a widely celebrated holiday until the one year where it was blamed for an AEW ratings decrease" Kendrick might have done some damage although you'd think he did damage to a bunch of programming and not just AEW. The fact that they scored that low and still finished #3 on the night suggests that everything WAS down, for some odd reason, Kendrick or otherwise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 I’m sure Dave will have an excuse for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 as I already noted, for it to average 502, something would have had to stink hard in ratings unless they accidentally counted 3/4ths of the show and averaged it as if it was 2 hours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 (edited) some of the blame is unofficially being placed on not having Big Bang Theory reruns to juice the ratings which doesn't feel like a great thing to admit during rights renewal season! "Hey, our ratings are gonna drop if you don't let us have a few minutes of BBT lead-in" Edited June 21 by Cobra Commander 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 It looks like the biggest drops occur... when MJF is around. MJF, say his name and viewers disappear... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Lord Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 (edited) I liked the show the other night so for at least me as a viewer I saw almost nothing wrong with it. Maybe the Corporate Bucks just isn't clicking. I mean the authority vs. talent story has been done to death all across wrestling. The big problem is the half filled arena's. They need to scale down into smaller venues so they can at least avoid not showing a full side of the building empty during the show. As for the ratings, star power isn't the problem. They have the talent. It's just what's being done with them that's the issue. Edited June 21 by Phantom Lord Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RazorbladeKiss87 Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 27 minutes ago, Raziel said: It looks like the biggest drops occur... when MJF is around. MJF, say his name and viewers disappear... Which is funny because I feel like a lot of people here and at PWO thought the company was kind of directionless after he went away. I really don't concern myself too much with what casual fans want or like but I do want the promotion to succeed and continue. Just shows the divide in fans I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 When you brag about booking your show for a vocal minority, it shouldn’t be a surprise when that’s what you’re left with eventually. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 6 hours ago, Cobra Commander said: "Juneteenth really didn't arrive as a widely celebrated holiday until the one year where it was blamed for an AEW ratings decrease" Kendrick might have done some damage although you'd think he did damage to a bunch of programming and not just AEW. The quarterhours are what they are for assigning credit/blame.. but the number is so low that the QHs have to have something in them to average 502 instead of the low 700s high 600s.. like did the entirety of the audience just tune out on the Bucks.. that sort of thing It would be funny if most of the Dynamite audience watched the Kendrick concert instead, and all they got for 1h30m was DJ Mustard and intermissions. FYI, I believe the actual concert didn’t start until the last half hour of Dynamite. But I also don’t think there’s a huge overlap in AEW fans and Kendrick fans to eat away their normal 700kish audience down to 500k. @EVA is on the money here - it still got #3 for the night so that tells me TV viewership as a whole was down that night. I know for me personally, I couldn’t watch because Xfinity cable/internet was down for like 12 hours. Not sure if that was a nationwide problem, but Xfinity sucks and I just wanted to mention that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 I kinda think that the whole "not having Big Bang Theory as the lead-in" thing might turn out to be a factor, but I can understand how weak of an excuse that sounds (and as I already noted, not really great to be so dependent on the lead-in during TV Rights negotiation season) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 (edited) As I said before, the handling of the CM Punk situation did irreparable damage to AEW which they've never recovered from. Poor leadership and poor management. That whole debacle was a major test for Tony Khan, and he failed it miserably. Tony Khan continues to show his incompetence by showing that security footage on TV and acting like a complete and utter lunatic on X. The company is directionless. Storylines start and stop at the drop of a hat. Wrestlers disappear from TV for weeks if not months at a time. Some of your top wrestlers and talents are seldom getting booked. Khan bought ROH with no idea of what to do with it and no plan for what to do with it. It diluted AEW's product. Now the company is eroding at the seams. Edited June 22 by TheVileOne 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 So I just automatically dismiss anyone that says "there aren't storylines" as there are plenty of those going on in AEW, so those people either aren't watching or just repeat what they see on X. But certainly no use in engaging with people making arguments in bad faith. We'll see if its a weird one-time thing that can't be explained or part of a trend. I think the two biggest factors are the lack of BBT lead-in and also... lets face it, Forbidden Door probably isn't the most exciting PPV for more casual fans. That's a PPV that really is for the sickos. While I don't think Dynamite has suffered due to the build, in fact I think Dynamite has been really hitting its stride the last month and the shows have been really good, I could absolutely see some fans that aren't interested in CMLL or Japanese wrestlers and just checking out. Will they come back in July? I think the Blood and Guts rating will be important, not that it needs to set new records but if its also sub-700K I think that would show a legitimate notable shrinking of the fanbase. I know its popular to say they should run smaller venues, and I don't necessarily disagree but I think one issue that has been brought up before is there aren't as many 3K to 4K arenas in the US, that can be adapted to wrestling for a reasonable price, in major cities. I'm not saying they don't exist but most arenas are going to be at least 8K as the places wrestling run are college basketball arenas, hockey arenas, general entertainment arenas, etc that are decent sized. They could do 'studio' shows but that clearly isn't the look they want. I'd love for them to at least once a month run Dynamite or Collision in a sub-4K arena they can fill or 95% fill, really get a good loud crowd in a small place but I don't know if its realistic on a broader scale. AEW's Dynamite ratings over the last six months have varied really wildly (as much as a 250K swing that fluctuates week to week), which admittedly I find fascinating as most shows don't ebb and flow over 20% of their viewers week to week. I mean they hit 819K on 4/10, 672K on 5/15, 787K on 5/29, and 502K on 6/19. That's crazy. But they definitely need a hot storyline or wrestler, even if its a weird one like Joe Hendry got in TNA, which is easier said than done. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 As far as overall ratings go, its also interesting that Collison has stabilized and unless its against something like a WWE PLE, its ratings are in the same range they were last August/September and are a lot more steady. Collison still won't beat Dynamite this week but if it stays around 400K its a lot closer than anyone would have reasonably thought just a few months ago. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 Step 1 to ratings: an intro that just shows everybody wrestling on the episode like it's a Midnight Special episode from the 70s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 AEW does have storylines, and there's lots of good stuff going on from week to week. I think the shows recently have been good for the most part. But you can't deny that the company has no sense of momentum, and there's a huge consistency problem. CM Punk's exit has left a stink of failure on the company that they've failed to properly address or manage. It's not something that bringing in Adam Copeland, Okada, Ospreay or Mone has been able to fix. Tony Khan fashioning himself as the face of the company and looking utterly incompetent and embarrassing while doing so hasn't helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 I think the answer is clear: the fans want the opening match to have a commercial break >_> (I do recall the original Forbidden Door tanking ratings for a month before the show, don't recall if that pattern held last year). I think the legit worry here is not if this is an outlier (I would be utterly stunned if it was not) but that it suggests a weakening of the "loyalty" of the typical AEW viewer in terms of Dynamite being a must see/not tuning out for anything else. If they are now more prone to having their eyes pulled away if something else compelling is on... in a couple months NCAA football is back and the last thing Collision needs is to be more vulnerable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 having multiple dudes who are either known entities or good acts out of action with leg injuries inflicted due to some dumbshit spots isn't great either 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 I don't think you can attribute it all to a 10-minute lead in. It's a two hour show. Having The Big Bang Theory as a lead in is nice but it's not adding 200k+ viewers to the overall rating each week. I really think it's a combination of things like it being a holiday and again the Kendrick Lamar concert was massive. That's what we were watching. It's one of those moments in history if you are a fan of music that you had to see.. Amazon is reporting record numbers for it. I do think a lot of people have Juneteenth off now. The beach was crazy packed for a Wednesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go2Sleep Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 I wanna know who watches BBT re-runs and then says "eh, fuck it, I'll stick around for 2 hours of wrestling." If there's 250,000 of those people, TK can shell out to have Jim Parsons take Christopher Daniels' role. 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 This rating is really stunning, but maybe outside factors did influence it. It’s weird. For the last month, maybe a little more than that, the booking has been consistently good, they’ve gone back to setting up matches for not just the following week, but for the week after that AND for Collision and sometimes Rampage. To say they have no momentum is dumb because booking wise and storyline wise, they do. It’s back where it should be. So the weird thing is that the ratings have been inching lower and lower and then this drastic drop during a period where the overall product has been much better and more people were tuning in where everything was less focused. My other thought is that there are only so many wrestling fans overall and with WWE staying consistently better, maybe more people are saying fuck it when it comes to watching another two more hours of wrestling. It’s crazy. Product wise, this is maybe the best wrestling has ever been since WCW had the nWo and Sting every week and WWF had Austin and WWF was clawing their way back inch by inch. Ratings are good for Raw and SD, NXT ratings are improving, and maybe that’s just eroding AEW’s viewers at the moment, better product or not. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 AEW Dynamite 19th June 2024: 502,000 total viewers. AEW Dynamite 12th June 2024: 681,000 total viewers. Bloody hell. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxB Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 The thing about the "Large building, half full" talking point is, on Wednesday the building was full and they opened up (and sold out) a bunch of sections on the hard cam side. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 3 minutes ago, AxB said: The thing about the "Large building, half full" talking point is, on Wednesday the building was full and they opened up (and sold out) a bunch of sections on the hard cam side. That's kinda true but EagleBank seats 10K (probably 8K with a wrestling setup) so even with the opening of a few sections they were around 4.5K. They released more tickets but they had under 4K originally released. There was still very large sections empty. I was glad with the attendance all things considered but I guess the question would be would the promotion rather legit sell out a 4K arena, or 60% fill a 8K arena. And the answer seems to be the latter but I can see the argument that occasionally doing a smaller arena and selling it out would be nice for TV and doing the "full" scan of the place, and being able to yell on commentary all night that its sold out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 AEW is suffering from things that a group of good shows and a PPV with some five star matches isn’t going to be able to fix. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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