Eric Bischoff Believes AEW Should Be Concerned With Viewership Decline

Eric Bischoff was recently interviewed by Wrestling Inc about the viewership for AEW Dynamite and why there should be concern.

Below are the highlights:

On his initial expectations:

“I really didn’t expect AEW to do much better than 500,000 to 600,000 viewers on their premiere episode because other than Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes and The Bucks, there’s not a lot of nationally-known branded talent. They’re very popular on the indie scene and strong on social media, but I underestimated that substantially when they came in at 1.4 million on their premiere episode. AEW has far exceeded my expectations and I’m glad to be able to say that.”

On the viewership decline:

“There’s a lot of people talking about their perspective and what it means and if somebody’s doing well or not so well. None of those people happen to be representatives of the network that’s living or dying by their ability to sell advertising for that show,” said Bischoff. “I don’t mean this to be critical, but if you look at NXT and AEW, both of those shows are delivering numbers that were embarrassing to TNA a couple of years ago. I don’t know how you can look at those numbers and not be concerned. In the TV industry, if you’re not building your audience, you’re killing your audience. You’re either growing or dying.”

On how a rerun of something other than wrestling could earn more viewers:

“People are probably saying the right things to the press. But if I was only delivering 800,000 viewers in primetime and my numbers weren’t showing signs of growing…you’re gonna fly into an iceberg sooner or later.”

On how hard it is for wrestling to sell advertisers:

“It’s always about the buck. High profile advertisers like automotive and alcohol – the ads that sell for the most money – those advertisers don’t want anything to do with wrestling. So, you’re narrowing your advertising market and when you do that, you lower your cost because you’re selling to a finite community with a lower budget. If you’re delivering under 1 million viewers a week in a market that’s not ad-friendly… If you are an advertiser and you are willing to place your ads in pro wrestling, you’ve got five hours of primetime on USA and FOX to place those dollars in. Why would you choose to place them in two smaller shows, NXT and AEW, with talent, that for the most part, the advertising community doesn’t even know or acknowledge? It’s a double whammy.”

On AEW compared to NXT:

“The first time I watched AEW…somebody asked me the next day what I thought. I said I thought it looked great and the most important character in the entire show was the audience. The lighting director made sure the audience was a part of the show. When you have a live-action audience who’s engaged in the product and feel like they’re a part of the show, that’s worth a lot. It translates to the viewer and makes them feel like they’re watching something that’s important. That sense is validated by the people’s reactions that they see on TV. Flip that over to a small, dark studio-type of venue, much like TNA or I had [with early WCW]. You have a small, sterile audience and it doesn’t feel valid or important. I use this example – take the best WrestleMania match and put that match in a high school gym in front of 120 people. Is it gonna feel like the same match? Is it gonna leave the same impression on the viewer? It won’t. The live part of the crowd is so important and I don’t see how NXT can begin to compete, long-term, just by producing the show in a studio environment. I know that because I did it in WCW… In terms of the television product, I think AEW is a winner hands down.”

Do you agree with Eric Bischoff?