On Tuesday, October 1, 2024, the new NXT era celebrated an extremely successful start with the episode “NXT: Chicago” on the CW Network. The show was broadcast live from Chicago, Illinois and saw a significant increase in viewership compared to the previous week. Overall tracked 895.000 Viewers the premiere, which was an increase of 44 % compared to the 620.000 viewers from the previous week.
WWE released an official press release to mark this success, announcing that ratings for NXT on the CW Network were the highest since October 2023. The peak rating reached 965,000 viewers between 8:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The show performed particularly well in the target groups of 25 to 54 year olds (406,000) and 18 to 49 year olds (354,000), achieving the highest ratings on The CW this year.
In the first episode on The CW, fans saw Trick Williams regain the NXT Championship, as well as guest appearances from WWE Superstars CM Punk, Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill. The episode posted triple-digit increases compared to The CW’s average primetime viewership the previous Tuesday in major markets including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Detroit.
This successful premiere of WWE NXT follows the successful launch of the NASCAR Xfinity Series on September 20th and shows that more and more viewers are choosing The CW as their platform for live sports. The five-year agreement between WWE and The CW Network, announced in November 2023, will see NXT air 52 live events per year, every week. The show was created in 2012 by Paul “Triple H” Levesque and serves to showcase young talent in sports entertainment. Under the leadership of Shawn Michaels, NXT has a strong following, particularly among younger viewers.
It was a historic night in Chicago @TheCW! #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/0nA3xe4B1y
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) October 2, 2024
– During the opening night show on The CW Network, the audience chanted “Holy Sh*t.” However, these chants were censored during the live broadcast on The CW. According to a report from PWInsider’s Mike Johnson, The CW likely made this decision due to stricter content guidelines for television networks.
Similar censorship issues also occurred with WWE’s Friday Night SmackDown when the show aired on FOX. The audience chants were often suppressed there and vulgar expressions from the wrestlers were also regularly hidden. This led to frustration within WWE, particularly in the summer of 2024, as it affected the presentation of the shows.
Most recently, fans speculated about a possible rating change for WWE NXT after a CW TV listing suggested the weekly shows could potentially receive a “TV-14” rating. This led to speculation as to whether NXT would present a more mature program in the future.
However, after the episode aired, it was confirmed that NXT would still be rated TV-PG. This dispelled the rumors about a possible change for older viewers and made it clear that NXT will continue under the previous classification.
The CW Network premiere began with a special appearance by Shawn Michaels and Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who unveiled two new championship titles to celebrate the show’s significant move to the new network.
Another interesting innovation appeared in the end credits of the show: three executive producers were named here – Paul Levesque, Lee Fitting and Shawn Michaels. This distinguishes NXT from Raw and SmackDown, which only have two executive producers listed – see also: WWE NXT: All results from Chicago, Illinois (October 1, 2024)
The next edition of WWE NXT will air live from St. Louis on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, with a special appearance from WWE Superstar Randy Orton. It will be exciting to see how ratings and viewer interest develop on the CW Network in the coming weeks.
