AEW’s Friday ratings were bad, even live & with Battle of the Belts

AEW brought a live double-feature to TNT on Oct. 7, but it won’t do anything to change the narrative about the company or its Friday night offerings.

According to Showbuzz Daily, Rampage had an audience of 404,000 at 10pm ET, and scored a .13 among 18-49 year olds. That’s its smallest viewership number since August, and lowest rating since July. The following hour, Battle of the Belts IV drew 317,000 viewers and a .10 in the demo, much lower than any of the three Saturday-airing specials bearing the same name. The shows finished 20th and 37th among cable originals, respectively.

There are lots of things to point fingers at: the time slot is always a challenge, the cards were rearranged late due to Andrade El Ídolo being sent home for his altercation with Sammy Guevara, and there was live sports competition from the Major League Baseball Playoffs (where the 8pm ET game on ESPN won the night with 3.61 million viewers and a .99 rating).

But no matter how you spin it, Rampage and any AEW programming that follows it on Friday nights aren’t must see TV for wrestling fans. They’re still doing better than almost anything else TNT could put in the same spot on the schedule, though, so hopefully Warner Bros Discovery and its advertising partners remain happy with that.

Here’s a look at Rampage’s numbers over the past six months, and how each Battle of the Belts show has done:

Rampage

• April 1 - 456K / .15
• April 8 - 600K / .25
• Apri 15* - 482K / .22
• April 22 - 518K / .19
• April 29 - 464K / .14
• May 6* - 292K / .11
• May 13* - 340K / .12
• May 20* - 410 / .15
• May 27* - 341K / .14
• June 3 - 475K / .14
• June 10 - 476K / .16
• June 17 - 331K / .10
• June 24 - 422K / .12
• July 1 - 486K / .16
• July 8 - 428K / .15
• July 15 - 435K / .14
• July 22 - 428K / .17
• July 29 - 375K / .11
• Aug. 5 - 468K / .15
• Aug. 12 - 528K / .17
• Aug. 19 - 461K / .12
• Aug. 26 - 431K / .11
• Sept. 2 - 485K / .16
• Sept. 9 - 429K / .14
• Sept. 16 - 470K / .14
• Sept. 23** - 522K / .17
• Sept. 30 - 472K / .16
• Oct. 7 - 440K / .13

* Aired at a time other than 10pm ET
** Two-hours

Battle of the Belts

• Sat., Jan. 8 - 704K viewers / .27 rating
• Sat., April 16 - 527K / .18
• Sat., Aug. 6 - 437K / .12
• Fri., Oct. 7 - 317K / .10

For complete results from this week’s Rampage & Battle of the Belts IV click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here.