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An example, using the April 4 episode of Smackdown, is shown in this post after my long explanation. Just scroll down if you want to look at that first.
I’m hoping to put this into effect beginning next week. These reports will begin being available for all paid subscribers on both Patreon and Substack (and on the website for people logged in through Patreon).
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I’ve spent the last three weeks working on overhauling these “show reports” which I think I’m going to start labeling “data reports”, to more clearly express the notion that there’s a variety of data and analysis provided beyond TV ratings.
In all, these new reports will be generated by roughly 33 Python scripts I’ve been working on and that, wish me luck, I will continue to maintain.
I believe this new format will be more informative and will get more to the heart of the information that’s meaningful to the types of things readers are thinking about. I’ll try to explain that now here.
All of the same information will still be present. The charts will look somewhat different and they’ll be interactive. I’m moving away from using a Python library called Matplotlib to draw the charts in these reports and instead I’ll be using a tool called Datawrapper. Datawrapper will allow us to provide more insightful and interactive charts, and to better annotate them, as you’ll see in the examples below.
There will also be two charts that are new and will be shown first under the leading TV ratings section.
Aside from using Datawrapper, there will be an automatically generated feature image — which you’re probably seeing above, at the top of this post — which will serve as the thumbnail for the website.
Why this image format? I realize the effect things like thumbnails and headlines have and am trying to be conscious about that, so I want to feature most highly the most important information. A viewership data point on its own doesn’t mean much. The most relevant information related to media rights value — by far the most important revenue source for the top U.S. wrestling companies — is how it ranks, how it compares to television more generally. So a small table showing quarterly performance will be displayed at the left. This will be the case for Raw, too, as we’ll show its median quarterly rank on Netflix. I digress, Raw on Netflix will continue to be accounted for and tracked to the best of our ability despite the lack of Nielsen data available. Here’s an example of how Raw’s thumbnail/feature image will appear:
Next, at the center in the image you’ll find a quarterly average for estimated tickets distributed, sourced from the invaluable coverage of individual events from WrestleTix. Media rights value and popularity are importantly different concepts in this era. Better than any metric we can readily track, live event performance/attendance/estimated tickets distributed is a strong indicator of fan popularity as ticket sales are not immediately impacted by the assorted distorting effects of the changes in how people watch television and consume other forms of media. So we provide quarterly averages of the given program’s estimated tickets distributed here, too. But what if, say, we’re looking at NXT at the Performance Center (in which case there’s no WrestleTix data available) or a Collision that’s taped along with a Dynamite we already reported on? In a case like that, the graphic will look like this:
Then, on the right, or taking up more of the image (as in the example for NXT above), we’ll have the latest new data points for television viewership and, if available, attendance. I am not including the ranking in this section of the image to the right, though I would like to, because ranking data for the latest program we’re reporting on often isn’t available yet because we might be waiting for Programming Insider to provide the data that’s needed. Nonetheless, the running median ranking for the quarter will be calculated and displayed on the left with the relevant year-over-year comparisons. Any notes about network changes or the dreaded AEW simulcast issue will be noted, as seen below in an example for Dynamite. Note the asterisk next to “2025”.
Is this too much data in one image? Maybe. But my intent here, in one quick look, is to give readers — or social media scrollers prone to low attention spans — much of what can be indicated clearly by the data we study; that is, the trend of the program’s and/or the related company’s (1) media value (as indicated by its trends in viewership rankings) and (2) the trend in its fan popularity (as indicated by its ability to move tickets over time).
Getting into the weeds of how these reports are made, these images don’t rely on Datawrapper but the sheer force of Python coding, referencing various graphics and drawing the column chart to proportion (yes, with Y axis labeled), using mainly the PIL library.
The first chart you’ll see, after the usual text that shows TV ratings data, is new to these reports. Subscribers have seen a similar one in the weekly “State of the Business” reports. Despite the complications brought on by streaming and network changes at the start of 2025, I believe this chart still gives a strong indication of how media value compares across the five or six programs (RIP Rampage) we’ve been tracking. To some extent, which I won’t — and hardly can — reconcile, the recent declines of all of these programs’ rankings trends, are influenced by changes in their distribution that, if you’re reading this, you’re probably well aware of. Those changes are and will continue to be annotated on this chart: Smackdown’s move from Fox to USA, NXT from USA to CW, and Dynamite and Collision having their distribution shared with Max as well as their WBD cable broadcasters. As the year goes on (note the lines represent a 52-week median) and these distribution changes get a longer track record behind them, the offset we should consider when viewing this chart might stabilize.
The other new chart will show the given program compared to other telecasts on that network in primetime. This is for originals only, collected from Programming Insider and (before that) SpoilerTV’s daily reports. Unfortunately, we don’t have comprehensive access to rerun data. Nonetheless, this should give us an idea of where the program stands in the network’s hierarchy. By this measure there are rarely any telecasts on CW that provide an audience in the ad demo that’s on the level of NXT. I know you’re already asking “What are the other programs here?” Each chart in the new reports will have an interactive version that you can click on to open.
Point being, if you hover your mouse over (or tap if you’re on mobile — that should also work) any of the green square dots below, you’ll see what these other telecasts are.
Like so much else, we have to handle Raw on Netflix differently, but it won’t elude our analysis and we’ll apply the best analog available. For Raw, we’ll compare Raw to everything in Netflix’s global weekly top 10 for a yearlong span.
You’ll notice above, we’ve limited the Y axis, causing the most highly-viewed programs to be literally off the chart. For example, Netflix’s NFL broadcasts and the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight had viewing so high that if we didn’t limit the axis, it would be hard to visually differentiate where Raw’s viewing lies among the rest. 95% of the data is still on the chart. Promotional partisans, I hear you, don’t worry, we’ve done similar for Dynamite and Collision, as TBS and TNT’s axes would be highly skewed by leading NBA playoff and March Madness telecasts. Here’s Dynamite’s chart. (Yes, there were a few preempted episodes of Collision and Rampage that aired on TBS.)
I’ll stop explaining here as the rest of the charts and analysis are hopefully just cleaner versions of what you’re used to. You can scroll down below and get a sense for yourself. I hope you’ll find this an improvement. I’ve put in effort to make sure this all looks right on mobile as well as desktop, email, and website forms, but if you see any areas for improvement, feel free to let me know.
When I start out I always underestimate how much work will go into coding projects but I’ve enjoyed putting this together. I think the results are reflective of the analytical and coding skill I’ve developed through the support of our audience, especially subscribers. I hope this new format will help you form a better understanding the wrestling business and its trajectories.
Here’s how new reports will look, using last week’s Smackdown as an example:
TV RATINGS
P2+ comparisons:
- This episode vs. last week (1,350,000): +17%
- This episode vs. trailing four weeks (1,530,000): +3%
- Current 2025-Q2 P2+ average (1,578,000) vs. 2024-Q2 (2,250,000): -30%
- Current Apr 2025 P2+ average (1,578,000) vs. Apr 2024 (2,394,000): -34%
P18-49 comparisons:
- This episode vs. last week (0.40): +17%
- This episode vs. trailing four weeks (0.46): +2%
- Current 2025-Q2 P18-49 average (0.47) vs. 2024-Q2 (0.64): -27%
- Current Apr 2025 P18-49 average (0.47) vs. Apr 2024 (0.68): -31%
Viewer counts for this week’s episode with the difference versus the median of the last 4 non-preemption episodes in parentheses. Some viewer counts may be based on the national rating for that demo:
- P2+: 1578k (+4%)
- P18-49: 630k (+2%)
- F18-49: 207k (-6%)
- M18-49: 417k (+13%)
- Non-P18-49: 948k (+5%)
Data Subscribers have access to the Wrestlenomics Viewership Spreadsheet.
LIVE EVENTS
Data from WrestleTix
Friday, April 4, 2025
Rosemont, IL at Allstate Arena
Estimated tickets distributed: 15,818
Market-to-market comparisons (Rosemont, IL):
- 2022-06-05 (Sun) – WWE Hell in a Cell: 12,834 (+23%)
- 2023-04-24 (Mon) – WWE Raw: 12,952 (+22%)
- 2023-11-24 (Fri) – WWE Smackdown: 15,937 (-1%) ← SAME EVENT TYPE
- 2023-11-25 (Sat) – WWE Survivor Series: 17,102 (-8%)
- 2024-03-25 (Mon) – WWE Raw: 15,464 (+2%)
- 2024-06-21 (Fri) – WWE Smackdown: 14,698 (+8%) ← SAME EVENT TYPE
- 2024-10-01 (Tue) – WWE NXT: 7,497 (+111%)
- 2024-12-29 (Sun) – WWE Live Holiday Tour: 12,213 (+30%)
Year-over-year comparison for this event type:
Current 2025-Q2 WWE Smackdown average: (15,818) vs. 2024-Q2 (12,370): +28%
YOUTUBE
Videos tracked since 9 PM Fri Apr 4 2025 as of 12 PM Fri Apr 11 2025 U.S. Eastern Time.
RECEPTION
As of 12:18 pm, Apr 11
Event rating:
- Cagematch.net voter rating: 7.70 (108 votes)
- This episode vs. last week (5.57): +38%
- This episode vs. trailing four weeks (6.08): +27%
- Current 2025-Q2 average (7.70) vs. 2024-Q2 (6.44): +20%
Match ratings:
- 7.60 (168 votes) – Braun Strowman vs. Jacob Fatu
- 7.35 (207 votes) – Nathan Frazer vs. Rey Fenix
- 6.32 (120 votes) – #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs. The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin)
- 5.72 (115 votes) – Tama Tonga vs. LA Knight
- Ineligible (<5 mins) – B-Fab vs. Naomi
This report was produced with the assistance of programming scripts created and maintained by me.
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He operates and owns Wrestlenomics.