AEW Dynamite ratings and viewership tumble against stiff competition

This week's AEW Dynamite ratings and viewership figures declined significantly against some difficult competition on Wednesday night.

United States President Joe Biden delivered his first remarks to a joint session of Congress, drawing the largest interest from TV viewers on the night. The speech was covered by all of the major cable news networks, and millions of Americans tuned in for the speech by the country's new president.

This was reflected in the ratings, as AEW Dynamite fell to tenth place in the cable television ratings on Wednesday night, down from second place last week. Coverage of President Biden's speech took up seven of the top 10 spots on cable television for the night.

According to Showbuzz Daily, AEW's viewership came in at 889,000 this week, down from the 1.104 million viewers that Dynamite did in the overnights last week. In the coveted 18-49 age group ratings demographic, AEW Dynamite drew a 0.33 demo rating. It was down slightly from the 0.37 demo rating that AEW drew last week. The big decline in overall viewership numbers for AEW appears to be due to the over 50 crowd tuning out, likely for the president's speech.

AEW Dynamite on Wednesday night featured a main event match of TNT Champion Darby Allin taking on Number 10 of the Dark Order. The show also featured Chris Jericho's Inner Circle doing a face-to-face promo with MJF's Pinnacle faction ahead of their Blood and Guts match. The opening match of AEW Dynamite was Brian Cage taking on (and defeating) "Hangman" Adam Page in an excellent (and surpr match.

Next week will be a big test for AEW Dynamite

AEW has been promoting their "Blood and Guts" special for Dynamite next week for several weeks now. The show will be headlined by a double cage match pitting Chris Jericho's Inner Circle faction against MJF's Pinnacle faction.

Without competition from the U.S. president next week, as well as MTV's The Challenge having wrapped new episodes now (that show blocked AEW from the top cable spot previously), AEW could have a legitimate chance at topping the cable television ratings next week. It will be interesting to see how much the show's numbers bounce back next week after this week's lowest number yet since NXT moved to Tuesday nights.