The debut of WWE’s NXT on the USA Network Wednesday night drew 1.179 million viewers per Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily. It was the first show on cable television for the WWE-owned “developmental” roster of sports entertainers.
The debut gets a head start on the debut of the new AEW wrestling promotion that will be shown on TNT. The competition will be reminiscent of the “Monday Night Wars” that happened during the 1990s when WWE and WCW competed head-to-head against each other on USA and TNT.
The WWE’s NXT had been shown exclusively on the WWE Network. The show’s second hour will still be shown on the Network while the first hour will be on the USA Network.
The ratings made it the 4th highest rated cable show on Wednesday night. It also drew a 0.43 rating in the A18-49 demo.
Notably, the highest-rated show on the USA Network the Wednesday preceding NXT’s debut was an episode of Suits which drew 965,000 viewers.
Right off the bat, we see that the WWE on Wednesday night will bring an immediate impact in ratings. When AEW debuts one might expect a decrease in the viewership as the audiences will be split (assuming, as rumors indicate, that AEW and NXT will be shown at 5pmPT/8pmET.
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