WWE & USA Network Confirm NXT To Tuesday Nights, New TV Deal
It's official: the Wednesday Night Wars are over.
WWE has officially confirmed NXT's move to Tuesday nights, bringing the black and gold brand's 18-month ratings battle with AEW Dynamite to an end.
The Wednesday Night Wars are over.
Per WWE's official press release, NXT will switch to Tuesdays from 13 April. This is part of a multi-year extension to WWE's contract to air its third brand on USA Network, which was due to expire later this year.
This has been in the works for months. With the NHL coming to USA Network on Wednesday nights and hockey a more valuable television product than NXT, the switch felt inevitable, ending a "war" that was more about WWE using NXT to eat away at AEW Dynamite's ratings after the upstart promotion announced its Wednesday night timeslot in 2019.
NXT last finished above Dynamite in the nightly cable rankings on the week of 18 December 2019. As WWE points out in its official release, temporary moves to Tuesdays brought around a 30% increase in the key 18-49 and 25-54 demographics this year, so the move bodes well for NXT's numbers going forward.
Here's the full press release:-
STAMFORD, Conn., March 30, 2021 – WWE (NYSE: WWE) and USA Network today announced a multi-year extension for NXT, which will move to Tuesday nights live on USA Network at 8/7c beginning April 13. The new agreement for the live, weekly two-hour show furthers WWE and USA’s nearly three decade-long relationship.
“We are incredibly proud of our three-decade partnership with WWE and in extending USA’s NXT deal, we are further establishing our portfolio as an unrivaled home for quality WWE content,” said Frances Berwick, Chairman, Entertainment Networks, NBCUniversal. “By transitioning NXT to a Tuesday timeslot where WWE has performed well in the past, we are giving our passionate fanbase more of what they love with back-to-back nights of exhilarating, live programming.”
“We are thrilled to continue WWE and NBCUniversal’s longstanding partnership with the extension of NXT on USA Network,” said Paul “Triple H® ” Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Global Talent Strategy & Development. “The move to Tuesdays provides a new opportunity for us to grow the NXT brand and enables our partner, USA Network, to continue to build its strong portfolio of sports and entertainment programming.”
Since launching on the network in September 2019, NXT has lifted USA to rank among the top cable entertainment networks in its regular Wednesday timeslot. In 2020, the weekly block averaged 847,000 total viewers and its special Tuesday episodes were even stronger, delivering gains of nearly +30% among the key 18-49 and 25-54 demos.
NXT is revolutionizing the world of sports entertainment with innovative styles from trend-setting and unapologetic Superstars including Finn Bálor®, Adam Cole®, Io Shirai™, Karrion Kross™, Johnny Gargano® and Candice LeRae™. The brand’s diverse roster consists of elite athletes from the NFL, collegiate and amateur sports, MMA and international sports such as rugby and kushti. It is also the birthplace to more than 80 percent of the current Raw® and SmackDown® rosters including Roman Reigns®, Seth Rollins®, Charlotte Flair®, Bayley®, Sasha Banks®, Alexa Bliss®, Bray Wyatt®, Bianca Belair™, The Street Profits®, Matt Riddle™ and Baron Corbin®.
All new episodes will be available on demand in the United States exclusively on Peacock, the day after its airing on USA Network.
NXT will continue to emanate from the state-of-the-art Capitol Wrestling Center™ in Orlando, Florida