AEW Collision: Winter Is Coming draws new record low against WWE Saturday Night's Main Event
AEW and WWE are coming out of another big weekend as the end of the year approaches. Triple H and his team presented the return of Saturday Night's Main Event, while Tony Khan's company put on its second annual Winter Is Coming edition of Collision. Numbers for both shows just dropped, and the release brings more unfortunate news for All Elite Wrestling.
Winter Is Coming was taped last Thursday at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis to air in its normal Saturday night timeslot on TNT. The seven-match card opened with Willow Nightingale defeating Jamie Hayter in a qualifier for the International Women's Cup. The main event saw Mark Briscoe defeat Kyle Fletcher in a Continental Classic Blue League match. Toni Storm, Kazuchika Okada, Daniel Garcia, Orange Cassidy, and others were also in action.
Saturday Night's Main Event aired on NBC and Peacock at 8 p.m. ET, live from Uniondale, NY. The show drew 1.59 million viewers and a 0.42 key demo rating. The Peacock numbers were not included, but Sports Illustrated's Jimmy Traina reports that the combined viewership between both networks would have been more than 2.3 million. SNME and Collision competed against the College Football Heisman Trophy special on ESPN and the NBA Cup semi-finals on ABC.
Collision drew just 246,000 viewers on Saturday night, making it the lowest total audience in the history of the show for the normal timeslot. Wrestlenomics adds that the episode also drew a 0.09 rating in the 18-49 key demographic.
Saturday's AEW Collision viewership was down 11.5% from last week. However, the key demo rating was up 28.5% from last week and was Collision's best 18-49 rating since November 16. The viewership for Saturday's Winter Is Coming episode was down 46.1% from the same week one year ago, and the key demo rating was down 40% from the same week in 2023.
AEW set for Collision special as final 2024 episode
AEW will run the historic Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Saturday night for the live Christmas Collision special. This will be the final Collision of the year as the Worlds End pay-per-view will air on Saturday, December 28.
Two Continental Classic matches have been confirmed for Christmas Collision. Blue League action will continue with Daniel Garcia vs. Shelton Benjamin, while Will Ospreay will face Ricochet in a Gold League match.
Christmas Collision will air at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, coast-to-coast, right after the College Football Playoffs. AEW will return to Hammerstein on Sunday for the Dynamite on 34th Street and Rampage New Year's Smash tapings.