All Elite Wrestling’s flagship program “AEW: Dynamite” is moving from TNT to TBS on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022, we learned Thursday at the Television Critics Association press tour. But its Friday spinoff, “AEW: Rampage,” ain’t going nowhere.
That’s the way Turner wants it, we’re told. Executives there want All Elite Wrestling to have the widest-possible footprint across WarnerMedia properties. (The show’s recent pay-per-view event, “AEW All Out,” was the first to be made available on Turner’s Bleacher Report streaming platform, B/R. WarnerMedia is in the process of exiting AT&T and merging with Discovery, Inc.)
“Dynamite” has aired Wednesday nights starting at 8 p.m. ET/PT on TNT since launching back in October 2019. The professional wrestling show has been a success, chasing WWE’s “NXT” off the same evening. “Dynamite” also made an excellent case for more All Elite action, hence, “Rampage.”
“NXT,” which for the most part still serves as the minor-league feeder system to WWE’s main roster shows “Raw” and “SmackDown,” now airs Tuesdays on USA Network.
Buoyed by the additions of former WWE Superstars (and in this case, we do mean Superstars) CM Punk and Daniel Bryan (who goes by his real name, Bryan Danielson, in AEW), “Dynamite” is having its best quarter in total viewers and in ratings among adults 18-19.
For about a month straight now, “AEW: Dynamite” has been the highest-rated cable program on Wednesdays in the key demo.
Earlier this month, “Dynamite” topped “Monday Night Raw” among viewers aged 18 to 49 for the first time. The gap was just 3,000 viewers.
It’s important to note here that “Raw,” which airs Mondays on USA Network, is a three-hour program. By scheduling and including the averages from the relatively lower-rated 11 o’clock hour, “Raw” is at an inherit disadvantage vs. two hour shows like “Dynamite” — or even its own “SmackDown” and “NXT.”
For now, “AEW: Dynamite” airs Wednesdays from 8 to 10 p.m. on TNT. “AEW: Rampage” airs at 10 o’clock Friday nights on TNT, where it will remain.