What networks, wrestling companies think about shocking Nielsen numbers

Fightful is an audience-supported platform. Please consider supporting original coverage by subscribing, so we can continue to provide you trusted, accurate, exclusive coverage.

Nielsen has made big changes that have affected pro wrestling.

POST Wrestling has a fantastic look at how a lot of the changes are happening, as the move from "panel-only" goes to "Big Data+Panel." We encourage you to check that out, as they broke it down in great detail.

Up until October, the viewership numbers provided were for "panel-only" viewership. The result has been what was expected to be higher wrestling viewership across the board, actually coming in significantly lower. A number of other shows measured higher, but wrestling was down on these metrics significantly.

The changes were a subject of conversation backstage at each major wrestling show based on what we heard, even though the viewership numbers themselves mean less to the talent themselves than ever before.

Fightful asked around in the industry about the changes. It was pretty well confirmed that it is being monitored heavily across WWE, AEW and other companies, though those are the only ones that really need to worry about it for the time being.

There was one source in AEW who said that Tony Khan is well aware of the changes, how they work and is adept at what they mean specifically. With AEW numbers, Max streaming is not reported for Collision and Dynamite, and the actual viewership emerging from those is kept very quiet.

We reached out to a source at WBD who provided the following insight.

"Too small of a sample size still. This past week was affected by MLB postseason than anything else (both dynamite and NXT were down quite a bit it vs last week as they were h2h against game 2s and game 3s of the wild card round). Unlike previous Nielsen methodology changes, not seeing a strong pattern yet of what will achieve growth with this expanded set of data — have seen some sports events go up vs what previous panel data showed and others go down vs what previous panel data showed. Baseball has particularly benefited in a big way thus far (and NFL/college football to a lesser extent from an overall growth standpoint). The one notable thing is that this new methodology adds an extra day of delay to get numbers from Nielsen and essentially kill WWE’s previous approach of trying to use fast nationals data to try to bash competition. Previously, Fast Nationals data was a strong led indicator of what the final numbers could be for episodes. Because the new Nielsen methodology is essentially a recalculation of audience overall, fast nationals data is useless as it does not have a strong correlation to what the final numbers may be."

WWE had previously provided fast national data to willing members of the media in order to make the competition look less successful, which is what is being referenced. That hasn't been done in quite a while.

We also reached out to a longtime contact at USA Network, who provided the following on background.

"It's something that is being discussed. What does it mean? Is wrestling not as hot as a couple of years ago? That would explain it across the board. Was there some sort of statistical anomaly that overestimated wrestling fans and viewership? All the data we've had previously would hint that it was the opposite, which is why we we're always excited to do business with WWE. It's been low-cost for returns, for decades until recently. It's really early and I would imagine AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery are still sifting through the information themselves because there's a lot to try to understand and rationalize what they mean now."

Both USA and WBD sources said there has been no discussion of cancelation, with a WBD source chuckling about that constantly being brought up. We did not hear back from a CW rep or source regarding NXT, but the general consensus before the change was that the network was pleased with the results they get from NXT. CW was dead set on adding wrestling program in the year or so prior to landing NXT.

When we asked talent if there have been any noticeable changes, they said that they feel like they've been reminded of times adjustments more of late than previously. Both AEW and WWE have had inconsistent time and nights compared to their usual schedules

One WWE production source expressed concern that the new numbers and data could be used to negotiate against TNA as they try to land a new television deal. We reached out to TNA's Carlos Silva on that and he said that such a thing hasn't even been brought up to TNA during negotiations and that they have an important call this week to keep wheels on their possible upcoming deal is going.