It is too early to deem the Divas-only season of WWE NXT a failure, but hope that the concept would provide an immediate ratings spark has seemingly left the building.
Tuesday’s season premiere opened to 1.151 million viewers and a 0.3 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen data posted by Mediaweek. While that performance is not terrible with respect to the show’s average, viewership was down significantly from the season two premiere and about 13% from last week’s season two finale.
To this season’s credit, the season two premiere benefited from the Nexus “Invasion” angle, which generated shockwaves through the wrestling community on Monday Night RAW the night before.
Nonetheless, as the two seasons have made a habit of declining in viewership a few weeks into their respective runs, it is possible that season three’s numbers could dip into dangerous territory just as NXT prepares to leave SyFy at the beginning of October.