MJF cut a promo that wrestling fans won’t soon forget during this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite. The top heel in the company delivered big time on the heels of a controversy that left many wondering what was real and what was scripted. It is no surprise that his fiery speech easily garnered the highest quarter-hour rating for Wednesday’s show.
The controversy began months ago when MJF began to tease that he was interested in jumping ship to WWE for big money once his AEW contract expired. From there, he no-showed the Double or Nothing fan fest in Las Vegas, and rumors began to fly that he might be walking out of the company. That has since become a key storyline on AEW television, leading to Friedman’s promo this week.
Wrestlenomics broke down the quarter-hour ratings for this week’s Dynamite. MJF’s promo dwarfed the rest of the show in viewership. The six highest minutes for viewers in the key 18-49 demo came as MJF verbally eviscerated his boss, his coworkers, and even the fans.
“The six highest minutes for viewership in P18-49 for this episode of Dynamite were during the MJF promo. The peak of the episode in the demo was at 8:27 pm with 661,000 viewers, equivalent to a 0.51 P18-49 rating (the kind Showbuzz Daily reports for this demo).
The peak in total viewership was the first minute of the program, which had 1,243,000 viewers. Dynamite often benefits from a strong lead-in, especially outside the demo, thanks to the Big Bang Theory that airs at 7:30 pm. Five of the top eleven most-viewed minutes in total viewership were during the MJF segment. The MJF promo’s highest total viewership by minute was 1,123,000 viewers, at 8:27 pm.
Viewership for the program declined significantly at 8:33 pm, as the MJF promo ended and an ad break began. The lowest point of that ad break had 731,000 viewers including 376,000 in the demo, which was the low point in both metrics for the two-hour show.”
MJF has repeatedly reiterated that he is always a ratings winner. This week was no different, as he brought in over a million viewers on a show that failed to break that number on average over the two hours. Time will tell if AEW can start to carry that momentum into other segments on the show.
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