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Wednesday night saw AEW Dynamite host its 2nd annual Winter is Coming special on TNT. The show has drawn a ton of conversation from AEW fans, especially with the show's kick-off match, which featured AEW World Champion Adam 'Hangman' Page defending his title against #1 contender Bryan Danielson.
The ratings for AEW's program are in, and in a reversal of WWE's latest trends, overall viewership numbers are up, while the highly coveted 18-49 demo is down. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.com, AEW's Winter is Coming special drew 948,000 viewers with a 0.31 rating in the 18-49 demo, which equals out to a 9% overall increase in general viewership, but a 7% dip in the 18-49 demographic.
In further analysis, Thurston noted that AEW's audience trended in an older direction this week, citing the fact that AEW's 18-49 demo numbers are at their lowest in 7 months, while their median age for viewers is going up.
"That’s down 7% in P18-49 from last week and up 9% in total viewership. Viewership in the 18 to 49 demo was the lowest for Dynamite since May 19. Median age was 53, the first time it's been older than 50 since May," Brandon Thurston wrote on Twitter.
Last year's Winter is Coming special drew 913,000 viewers and had a 0.42 rating in the 18-49 demo, with AEW competing against WWE NXT for the same time slot at the time, according to NoDQ.com.
Results from AEW Dynamite's Winter is Coming Special
As mentioned before, the special kicked off in surprising fashion, as AEW scheduled the World Championship match to be the first match of the evening. Champion Hangman Page and challenger Bryan Danielson took each other to the limit, with the bout ending in a 60 minute draw, the longest recorded match in AEW Dynamite history.
The night also featured Wardlow taking on Matt Sydal in a very quick bout that saw the bigger man crush the former WWE Superstar in less than 2 minutes. Serena Deeb took on former AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida, with Shida picking up the win in the duo's rubber match. In the main event, Dante Martin took on MJF for the AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring. Martin almost had the win over MJF sealed, but interference from Ricky Starks led to his eventual defeat, and MJF's third win of the Dynamite Ring.
