AEW Battle Of The Belts Sees Massive Ratings Drop From Last Event

AEW aired its second Battle of the Belts event on Saturday night. The show featured Sammy Guevara defeating Scorpio Sky to become a three-time TNT Champion. While viewership was relatively strong given the competition with the NBA Playoffs, it was down nearly 200,000 from the first Battle of the Belts special.

ShowBuzzDaily reports that AEW Battle of the Belts finished tenth among original cable telecasts for Saturday night. Total viewership was reported to be 527,000. The event did a .18 in the key 18 to 49 demographic, equating to roughly 240,000. Both numbers are down from the previous event.

The January version of Battle of the Belts drew 704,000 total viewers. That included 355,000 in the key demo. This week’s show faced much stiffer competition.

NBA playoff coverage dominated the Saturday cable ratings. UFC Fight Night also rounded out the top five. Pre and post-game NBA coverage also beat AEW in viewership.

AEW Rampage was also down this week. The show aired at 4 PM on the west coast due to the early start time because of the NBA game airing on TNT. As long as the playoffs are going on, most cable shows should expect a steep dive.

AEW may look at scheduling the next Battle of the Belts a little more carefully. Competition from multiple marquee sporting events put a huge dent in viewership. Tony Khan can expect viewership to bounce back, but it was a questionable choice to schedule programming directly against stronger competition.

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