AEW Bash At The Beach Averages 940,000 Viewers, Outdraws NXT

AEW’s Bash at the Beach special helped AEW continue its recent string of success in the ratings.

According to Showbuzz Daily, the January 15 episode of AEW Dynamite averaged 940,000 viewers, beating NXT once again, which averaged 700,000 viewers. Both of those numbers are slightly down from last week’s shows with AEW averaging 947,000 viewers and NXT averaging 721,000 viewers for their respective January 8 shows.

For AEW, this is the third straight week Dynamite averaged at least 940,000 viewers. Dynamite has not had such a streak since the show’s first four weeks which started in October. Dynamite’s three episodes in 2020 have averaged roughly 951,000 viewers.

In the 18-49 demographic, AEW drew a 0.38 rating, which was the fifth-highest among cable originals for the day, while NXT drew a 0.21 rating, good for 31st-best for the day. Despite viewership for both shows going down compared to last week, the ratings in the aforementioned demographic were up this week with AEW doing a 0.36 rating and NXT doing a 0.19 rating on January 8.

Both NXT and AEW had to compete with the Philadelphia 76ers vs. Brooklyn Nets NBA game on ESPN, but AEW actually outdrew the NBA game and had a higher rating in the 18-49 demographic. The NBA on ESPN game averaged 934,000 viewers and drew a 0.34 rating.

The Bash at the Beach special opened with a fatal four-way tag team that saw Kenny Omega and Hangman Page win a shot at the AEW World Tag Team Championship. Elsewhere on the show, PAC and Jon Moxley won their respective singles matches to secure a No. 1 contender’s match and clinch a future AEW World Championship match.

On NXT, the last two matches of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic quarterfinals took place with the team of Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne as well as Grizzled Young Veterans advancing to the semifinals. In the main event, Bianca Belair won a battle royal to become the No. 1 contender for the NXT Women’s Championship and will get her title shot at the TakeOver: Portland event next month.

For full reports on both AEW and NXT shows, check out Fightful’s results section and you can check out the post-show podcast where Sean Ross Sapp, Alex Pawlowski and Warren Hayes gave a recap of both shows at this link.

For a full rundown of viewership numbers from various WWE programs and AEW Dynamite, check out Fightful’s resources page.