The recent changes Nielsen made to its TV ratings system have drastically affected the reported viewership for WWE and AEW programs, raising concerns among wrestling fans and industry insiders about how these shifts reflect the current popularity of wrestling. This adjustment in measurement marks a significant transition in capturing audience data for wrestling shows, notably impacting WWE Nielsen ratings impact across their televised events.
Historical Context of Wrestling Television Ratings
For many years, Nielsen has served as the benchmark for television ratings, tracking the viewership of programs across the United States, including wrestling broadcasts. The ratings for WWE’s Monday Night Raw and its late-1990s rival, WCW Monday Nitro, were pivotal in determining which company commanded a larger audience during the height of the wrestling wars. Notably, WCW’s 83-week streak at the top led to the creation of a podcast by former WCW President Eric Bischoff titled 83 Weeks, commemorating the era when WCW outperformed WWE for nearly two years. However, the emergence of Steve Austin as WWE’s breakout star in the spring of 1998 tipped the scales permanently in WWE’s favor.
Television viewing habits have molded significantly over the last two decades. Whereas SmackDown would once draw upwards of 5 million viewers on traditional cable networks 25 years ago, current viewership has dwindled to approximately 1.5 million per broadcast, despite WWE’s product size growing considerably. This decline highlights the shift in audience consumption, with streaming platforms increasingly replacing cable TV as the primary medium.
How Nielsen’s Updated Measurement Method Affects Wrestling Ratings
According to detailed analysis from Wrestlenomics, Nielsen’s past ratings relied on a “panel-only” methodology also known as Automatic Content Measurement (ACM). This approach depended largely on a sample panel tracking viewers, which had limitations in fully capturing the expansive modern viewing landscape. The updated system, dubbed “Big Data + Panel,” combines massive device-level information from set-top boxes and smart TVs with traditional panel data to create a more comprehensive measurement approved by the Media Rating Council.
This shift aims to increase accuracy by pulling data from a much wider range of sources. Nonetheless, it appears this transition has created a sharp decline in reported viewership specifically for major wrestling shows, which has led to widespread criticism within the wrestling community.
Significant Declines in WWE NXT and AEW Dynamite Ratings Under New Nielsen System
Among the wrestling programs affected by Nielsen’s new methodology are WWE NXT on The CW, AEW Dynamite on TBS, WWE SmackDown on the USA Network, and AEW Collision on TNT. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer characterized the new Nielsen approach as a “disaster” for professional wrestling ratings. He detailed substantial decreases in audience size and key demographic ratings that raise serious concerns for the industry’s future.
“The new Nielsen methodology for television ratings is a disaster for pro wrestling. The move is basically complete and from this point forward we’ll be getting it based on the new numbers. AEW did 465,000 viewers and 0.09 (18-49 audience) for the anniversary show, down 32 percent from last week under the old method from 0.14. These numbers don’t include HBO MAX. The Yankees-Red Sox game hurt it but it’s more the change. NXT was also down 41 percent from the prior Tuesday going from 0.17 to 0.10. Smackdown was also down heavy, but more in viewers than 18-49, which went from 0.37 to 0.35. The last 30 minutes did hurt the show but even so, in the regular two hours it was 0.10. The second hour had a big drop from the first which also could relate to the baseball game. Male numbers were incredibly down. As for where it hurt most, males 18-34 were down 66 percent, Women 18-34 were down 57 percent, males 35-49 were down 27 percent. Baseball should have accounted for a small part of that, but it was also the anniversary show. NXT also did terribly with 18-34, doing an 0.06 and AEW did even worse at 0.04. While nothing in reality has changed, these numbers are going to be viewed over the long term with the conclusion young people don’t watch wrestling and that’s a very bad conclusion when the vast majority of revenue comes from television.”
— Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer
Meltzer’s report underscores that while external factors such as Major League Baseball games may have contributed slightly to drops in viewership, the overwhelming cause is the altered measurement system. For instance, AEW’s anniversary edition on TBS showed a 32 percent decline in viewers compared to the previous week’s figures derived from the older rating method. Similarly, WWE NXT’s ratings plunged by 41 percent, and SmackDown experienced significant decreases in total viewer counts, even though its demographics measured by the 18-49 age bracket only dropped slightly.
The most alarming drops were reported among young male viewers aged 18 to 34, a demographic crucial to wrestling’s commercial success, which declined by 66 percent under the new rating system. Women in the 18-34 range also fell by 57 percent, while males between 35 and 49 showed a 27 percent decrease. NXT and AEW fared particularly poorly among younger adults, with ratings of 0.06 and 0.04, respectively, indicating the system casts a grim view of wrestling appeal to younger audiences even though no real change in actual viewership habits has been confirmed.
Implications of Ratings Transformations on Wrestling Promotions
These changes in measurement carry serious consequences for wrestling companies. Ratings have long served as a benchmark for wrestling promotions to assess which storylines resonate, which wrestlers draw in viewers, and how to adjust their programming to maximize audience engagement. The dramatic fall in reported numbers threatens to misrepresent wrestling’s popularity, possibly influencing advertiser confidence, sponsorship deals, and the internal direction of wrestling storylines based on flawed data.
With most wrestling revenue still tied closely to television exposure, settling on accurate and trustworthy ratings is vital. The perception that younger audiences are tuning out, fueled primarily by the new Nielsen figures, could lead to misguided assumptions about wrestling’s fan base and damage long-term strategic planning. Whether these rating methods will be further refined or if wrestling companies will adjust their strategies to compensate remains an open question.
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