WWE NXT Viewership and Key Demo Rating for the 2023 Heatwave Special

Tuesday’s live Heatwave edition of WWE NXT drew 720,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to Nielsen via Wrestlenomics. This is up 5.88% from last week’s 680,000 viewers for the Heatwave go-home show.

Tuesday’s NXT drew a 0.19 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. This is even with last week’s 0.19 rating in the key demo. The 0.19 rating represents 254,000 18-49 viewers, which is up 2.01% from the 249,000 18-49 viewers that last week’s 0.19 key demo rating represented.

NXT ranked #3 for the night on cable TV this week with the 0.19 key demo rating, according to spoilertv.com. This is down from last week’s rare #1 ranking for NXT. This Tuesday’s #1 show on cable was the Little League World Series on ESPN at 7pm with a 0.21 key demo rating and 1.093 million viewers. The #2 show was Love & Hip-Hop Atlanta on MTV at 8pm, which drew a 0.20 key demo rating with 517,000 viewers.

Tuesday’s NXT drew the fourth-highest total audience of the year so far, and the fourth-highest key demo rating of the year so far, tied with one other episode. To compare, the 2022 Heatwave special, which aired on August 16, drew 723,000 viewers with a 0.18 rating in the key demographic. Tuesday’s NXT viewership and key demo rating were both above the 2022 average. This week’s NXT viewership was up 5.88% from last week, while the key demo rating was even with last week.

This week’s NXT viewership was up 6.19% from the episode that aired one year ago in 2022, while the 18-49 key demo rating was up 35.71% from the show that aired one year ago. The 2022 episode was the post-Heatwave episode.

Tuesday’s Heatwave edition of NXT aired live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando with the following line-up advertised ahead of time – an appearance by NXT Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton, Baron Corbin vs. Von Wagner, NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio and WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley vs. Dragon Lee and Lyra Valkyria, Nathan Frazer defending the NXT Heritage Cup against new champion Noam Dar, Ilja Dragunov vs. Trick Williams, Ava vs. Ivy Nile, plus NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes defending against Wes Lee, which was the main event.

Below is our 2023 NXT Viewership Tracker, along with the Top 10 moments from this week’s show:

January 3 Episode: 653,000 viewers with a 0.16 rating in the 18-49 demographic
January 10 Episode: 700,000 viewers with a 0.15 rating in the 18-49 demographic (New Year’s Evil episode)
January 17 Episode: 600,000 viewers with a 0.14 rating in the 18-49 demographic