AEW Risks Holiday Ratings Hit with Thanksgiving Night Collision Episode

AEW Collision is making a bold move this November, trading its usual Saturday night slot for a special Thanksgiving Day broadcast. The decision, revealed in a Warner Bros. Discovery press release, confirms that Collision will air on Thursday, November 27 at 8 p.m. ET, just five days after AEW Full Gear.

On paper, the shift avoids a direct fight with WWE’s Survivor Series, which airs two days later on Saturday, November 29. AEW’s logic is clear: dodge a head-to-head ratings disaster. But not everyone is convinced this was the right play.

Dave Meltzer didn’t hold back when he heard the news. Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer called it a ratings trap no matter how you look at it.

After co-host Garrett Gonzales mentioned the WBD schedule update, Meltzer explained that historically, airing wrestling on Thanksgiving night has almost always been a disaster for television numbers—even if it once worked for live events in the territory days.

“That’s like, damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Wrestling history of shows on Thanksgiving Night, you know, when on Thursday, you know, it’s brutal. Thanksgiving kills wrestling. I mean, Thanksgiving was a great, you know, when in the Seventies and Eighties was a great night to have wrestling, but Thanksgiving Night, wrestling on television because TNA was—when they were on Spike—one show a year would be the Thanksgiving Show and would always just do horrendous in the numbers, you know. So, and it’s AEW, and they’re already getting chopped up in eighteen–thirty-four anyway.”

Meltzer’s warning reflects AEW’s tough position. Earlier this year, Collision took massive hits in viewership when airing against WWE PLEs. The February 1 episode that went head-to-head with the Royal Rumble drew just 197,000 viewers and a 0.04 rating in the 18–49 demo—the worst numbers the show has seen. A similar drop followed on March 1 during Elimination Chamber weekend.

AEW’s decision to move Collision to Thanksgiving may help avoid WWE’s stranglehold, but Meltzer made it clear that the holiday presents its own pitfalls. Between NFL games and family events, wrestling often gets lost in the shuffle—especially in today’s saturated content landscape.

The Thanksgiving edition of Collision will serve as fallout from Full Gear and begin AEW’s build toward Worlds End in December. But if history repeats itself, that night could be a rough one for the ratings sheet.

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