During his recent 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about WWE and AEW’s recent television viewership declines:
“I think SmackDown probably lost 100,000 viewers to [NBA] of their regular audience,” Bischoff said. “We’ve talked about this on this podcast, I’ve predicted this, I’ve predicted every dirt sheet writer, every headline on the internet is going to say ‘Ratings are plummeting,’ it’s summer time! It happens every f—ing year. It’s as predictable as the sun coming up and the moon coming up, the ratings always go down in a consistent percentage in April when daylight savings time kicks in, weather gets nice and people go yeah, I don’t think I’m going to sit in my house and watch T.V. anymore because I’ve been COVID contained. I’m going to go to my local tavern and not watch wrestling, or if I’m going to watch wrestling, I’m going to watch it at the bar which by the way, doesn’t have a Nielsen [ratings] box.”
“I think people are making way too much over everybody’s low ratings. Whether it’s AEW, WWE, f—ing IMPACT, what did they show up with last week? 69,000 viewers? I could cut a video of me flipping a burger on my rec tec [grill] and do better than 69,000 people watching it, but guess what, it’s summer time. Everybody is out, that’s what happens, it will come back.”
