AEW made company history this past week and not in the way they wanted to. The 6/19 episode of AEW Dynamite received the lowest viewership and key demographic in the show's entire existence on Wednesdays.
Despite being less than two weeks away from Forbidden Door, Dynamite only garnered an average audience of 502,000, which is a 26.3% drop from last week, and the key 18-49 demographic only roped in a 0.16, over a 30% decrease from the previous week.
Those numbers are dreadful for Dynamite, but a report from Fightful has both AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery giving their reasons.
Sean Ross Sapp heard from AEW sources that a reason for such a drop-off was due to the absence of The Big Bang Theory lead-in. Instead of riding off the successful syndicated sitcom per usual, TBS aired Black Panther instead, affecting the usual built-in lead-in numbers. Therefore, the "tune-in" number was actually greater than the lead-in. That, however, didn't stop their AEW sources from being shocked by the number.
When it comes the Warner Bros. Discovery perspective, the Fightful source played down the drop.
"Just a very odd week in general, and a confluence of stuff Juneteenth holiday in the middle of the week (when does a mid-week holiday ever happen in late spring/summer months?!). Competition with Olympic trials and college baseball all World Series in prime time. Amazing weather in much of the country (especially up here in the northeast), so lots more people out and about. Wouldn't really put much into one week's number, although I know the wrestling community likes to go nuclear with these kinds of one-offs."
A different source from WBD claimed that the drop wouldn't affect a potential new deal between AEW and the network.
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