According to Showbuzz Daily, the January 13 edition of NXT drew its second-worst audience rating in history.
As per the report, the episode which saw ‘The Bruiserweight’ Pete Dunne step-up to challenge Finn Balor for the NXT Championship at the Valentines Day NXT TakeOver on February 14, only managed 551,000 which translates to 0.14 in the key 18-49 demographic.
The ratings put this show only just behind the first show NXT held with no fans on March 18, 2020, which drew 542,000 viewers which worked out to a 0.16 in the key demo.
Sadly, the show lost close to a hundred thousand fans from the January 6 NXT New Year’s Evil which brought in 641,000 with a 0.16 score in the demos and was said to be down 21% on this time last year.
While cable news channels are being blamed for impacting on the numbers for professional wrestling viewership – AEW only manged 762,000 – dominating the ratings with in-depth coverage of the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, The Rachel Maddow Show which aired on MSNBC topped the evening’s ratings with 4.765 million views.
Network TV’s viewership was ruled by drama Chicago Med on NBC which pulled out 7.616 million with the channel’s Chicago Fire topping the demos with a 1.04 rating.
The January 13 episode of NXT also saw Raquel Gonzalez take aim at Io Shirai and the NXT Women’s Championship as well as the onset of the men’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic which saw Grizzled Young Veterans advance.