As you may have heard, Nielsen’s move to their “Big Data + Panel” methodology has been a disaster for pro wrestling. The research firm that specializes in media audience numbers switched up their approach in an attempt to utilize more information from streaming and smart devices without losing the first-person perspective provided by their old “diary”-based methods. Every pro wrestling show’s ratings have fallen since Nielsen made the switch a week ago… except one.
That would be the Sept. 27 AEW Collision.
Could it pull off the trick two weeks in a row?
It was always gonna be an upstream swim given the show was pre-taped and airing coast-to-coast at 7 p.m. Eastern, but it could not. Programming Insider says the Oct. 4 Collision had an audience of 226,000, down 9% from the previous Saturday. The .03 rating among 18-49 year olds was a 40% week-to-week drop. It’s not really valid to compare BD+P to P-only numbers, but it ties the lowest demo rating in show history.
The Nielsen ratings have only ever represented AEW’s performance on Warner Bros Discovery’s cable networks, TNT and TBS. But in a statement to Wrestlenomics, a WBD spokesperson made sure to specify that it still doesn’t now that Nielsen’s changed their methods:
“AEW’s Dynamite and Collision linear viewership information reported by Nielsen (still) does not include HBO Max streaming viewership.”
We haven’t seen other media companies make similar statements, but the lack of data direct from streamers is an issue with a few Nielsen clients, including the National Football League. Just more fuel for the never-ending fire of wrestling ratings #discourse…
Back to last Saturday, which was loaded with live sports competition. That included but was not limited to ABC’s Saturday Night Football game between Miami and Florida State, which led the way with a 1.51 rating from 6.03 million viewers, and Game 1 of Dodgers/Phillies in the second round of the Major League Baseball posts, second with a .81 from an audience of 3.78 million. There were a multitude of other college football games, and UFC prelims on as well.
AEW will face similar competition with a pre-taped Homecoming episode this Saturday. We’ll see how it does, then add it our rundown of the past year’s worth of Collisions:
- Oct. 5**: 269K / .05
- Oct. 19: 346K / .10
- Oct. 26: 321K / .09
- Nov. 2†: 349K / .09
- Nov. 9: 322K / .10
- Nov. 16: 356K / .11
- Nov. 30*†: 144K / .03
- Dec. 7: 278K / .07
- Dec. 14: 246K / .09
- Dec. 21: 635K / .20
- Jan. 4: 345K / .09
- Jan. 11: 337K / .09
- Jan. 17: 342K / .10
- Jan. 25**: 250K / .07
- Feb. 1**: 197K / .04
- Feb. 8: 387K / .10
- Feb. 15*: 502K / .21 (Grand Slam Australia)
- Feb. 22: 421K / .12
- March 1**: 280K / .06
- March 8: 363K / .10
- March 15: 408K / .10
- March 22*: 554K / .20
- March 23*: 584K / .22
- March 29: 339K / .09
- April 5: 335K / .08
- April 12: 455K / .12
- April 17*: 353K / .08
- April 26*: 707K / .21
- May 3*: 341K / .06
- May 8*: 382K / .09
- May 17: 398K / .08
- May 22*: 353K / .08
- May 31*: 504K / .18
- June 4*: 380K / .10
- June 11*: 397K / .09
- June 21: 426K / .10
- June 26*: 285K / .08
- July 5: 310K / .10
- July 10*: 323K / .06
- July 19: 348K / .06
- July 26: 327K / .08
- July 31*: 409K / .10
- Aug. 9: 423K / .08
- Aug. 16: 268K / .06
- Aug. 23: 281K / .07
- Aug. 30: 195K / .04
- Sept. 6: 300K / .07
- Sept. 13: 235K / .05
- Sept. 20:*†: 184K / .04
- Sept. 27†º: 248K / .05
- Oct. 4: 226K / .03
* Aired outside its usual Saturday 8-10 p.m. ET primetime slot and/or on a network other than TNT
** Ran directly opposite a WWE show or event
† Ran the same day as a WWE event
º Nielsen began using Big Data + Panel methodology
Results from the latest Collision can be found here.
